Richard Scolyer: Melanoma doctor's high-stakes gamble to treat his brain cancer

On opposite sides of the world, Richard Scolyer and Georgina Long each took one look at a scan and their hearts sank.But these long-time friends - both leading skin cancer doctors - feared it held a ticking time bomb.

" when I was doing the cancer block the most challenging patients to see were the ones with advanced melanoma. It was heartbreaking," Prof Long says.Today, it's near impossible to overstate their impact on the field. It has made the duo national treasures. Almost every Australian would know someone impacted by their work and this year they've been jointly named as the Australians of the Year.They bonded over frustration at the cases they couldn't crack, the highs of life-changing discoveries, a love of exercise, and a lofty ambition of reaching zero melanoma deaths in Australia.

Eyes shining, the medical oncologist rattles off a list of qualities - brave, honest, upbeat, driven - which make Prof Scolyer the dream colleague and friend.And so, after she received that fateful call from Poland last June - where Prof Scolyer was on holiday when a seizure triggered his diagnosis - she spent the night crying.But then she spent the morning plotting - poring over textbooks, researching clinical trials, and firing off emails to colleagues globally.

He is also the first to be administered a vaccine personalised to his tumour markers, which boosts the cancer-detecting powers of the drugs.Weeks after that initial scan sent their lives into a tailspin, Prof Scolyer and Prof Long looked at another test result."I was blown away. In a millisecond," he says.Not only were there traces of the drugs in the tumour - proving the medication had reached his brain - there was an explosion of immune cells.

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