Sydney-based scientists who developed an immunotherapy for the treatment of melanoma have been named joint Australians of the Year for 2024.
Professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer are the co-directors of Melanoma Institute Australia, where their collaboration developed a method to treat patients with the malignant and most serious form of skin cancer by harnessing their immune system against the disease.
The drug therapies employed by Long and Scolyer in their work are particularly important for patients whose melanoma has spread throughout the body.
Known as checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy, these drugs prevent specialised ‘checkpoint’ proteins from misdiagnosing cancers as normal cells, enabling T-lymphocytes to find and destroy melanoma.
Their use of these treatments has helped turn what is often described as Australia’s national cancer into a curable disease.
In an emotional acceptance speech, Scolyer said: “We stand here tonight proudly representing every melanoma patient and their families. But also those with brain cancer, and indeed all cancers.”
Scolyer is fighting his own cancer diagnosis. In June last year, he was diagnosed with incurable stage 4 glioblastoma. This brain cancer arises in glial cells in the brain and can spread rapidly.
Together, Scolyer and Long are attempting to treat his illness with the methods they use to treat patients at MIA.
“I’m only 57, I don’t want to die,” he said. “I love my life, my family, my work, I’ve so much more to do. I’m one of the many thousands of cancer patients who’ve travelled this path. Devising this world-first experimental treatment for my type of brain cancer. For me, the decision to take on Georgina’s groundbreaking plan, was a no-brainer.”
While Scolyer admits his outlook is being measured in months, Long expressed a desire for him to be back on the AOTY stage to present the 2025 recipient with their award.
“Our thoughts are always with those families where our breakthrough treatments came too late. We are forever indebted to your loved ones and all our patients for their selfless commitment to research which has changed the future for others – that is Aussie mateship at its very best,” Long added.
The pair singled out the nation’s summer tan culture as one of the biggest handbrakes on eradicating an otherwise preventable cancer.
“Tomorrow, thousands of Aussies will be soaking up the sun, working on their tans, or as we see it, brewing their melanomas,” Long says.
“A tan is skin cells in trauma from over-exposure to UV radiation from the Sun. There is nothing healthy about a tan, nothing. Our bronzed Aussie culture is actually killing us.
“So we call on advertisers and social media influencers – stop glamouring tanning, or using it to sell or advertise or entertain. And to our fellow Australians when you see it, call it out, demand change.”
Likening the glamourisation of tanning to glamourising smoking, Scolyer added “We must elevate sun safety to equal status with other life-saving safety measures like wearing a seatbelt or a helmet.”
They called for targeted screening programs and investment in research. Earlier in the week, the federal government announced the checkpoint-inhibiting drug Opdualag would be added to the nation’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme – a medication subsidy program. It’s anticipated the drug will treat about 940 patients with advanced melanoma annually.
The Australian of the Year is selected from the 8 winners of state and territory Australian of the Year awards. Scolyer and Long were the NSW Australians of the Year. Environmental scientist Tim Jarvis was named SA Australian of the Year.
Dinosaur man named Local Hero
David Elliot, the man who stumbled across dinosaur footprints and who built a tourist attraction around them, was awarded “Australian Local Hero of the Year.”
‘Elliot’ the sauropod, Australia’s largest dinosaur fossil, was discovered in 1999 on a property near the outback town of Winton, central-western Queensland.
The region has since become known as a fossil hotspot. In 2002, Elliot and wife Judy founded an Australian dinosaur-themed natural history museum in the town, where it houses one of the nation’s largest fossil collections.
Elliot called on the government to follow other countries which celebrate their environment by building a public natural history museum, in regional Australia.
