Richard Scolyer

And ultimately, treatment decisions are made principally based on the prognosis of the tumour.

It's different for different cancers, but some cancers are more difficult than others.

And unfortunately, with

It's the second commonest cancer in men in Australia and the third most common in women.

It's a tough diagnosis often.

So experience and improving knowledge in diagnostic techniques is very important.

Yeah, well, first of all, the Institute changed names over the time.

It was Sydney Melanoma Clinic and it was established in the 1960s and that came about because Australians were the first people to recognise that melanoma was caused by ultraviolet irradiation.

The incidence was higher in Queensland than down in Tasmania and that started this process of understanding what caused it and what can be done to prevent it and then

further management.

And the clinic grew into the Sydney Melanoma Unit at RPA and subsequently into Melanoma Institute Australia in about 2007.

And yeah, that was when I was heavily involved in it.

And it had always been run by a surgeon because basically it was a surgical disease and there were no effective drug therapies for people with

advanced stage melanoma.

Basically, if your melanoma had spread around your body, most people were dead within a year.

Five-year survival rate was less than 5%.

But at that time, discoveries through clinical trials that were being done through the Melanoma Institute were

starting to change things in melanoma people were having improved outcomes and so we've been i guess i don't like to brag but in some way we've been world leaders in it and it was unusual for melanoma in treatment research center to have a non-surgeon so a medical oncologist or a pathologist and have two of us working together was was also unusual but

I'm very proud of what we've achieved and being able to keep such an incredible multidisciplinary team of experts working together, all focused on this goal of getting to zero deaths from melanoma.

Well, I hope so.