Australian of the Year: Melanoma researcher Georgina Long

Last Thursday melanoma researcher Professor Georgina Long was announced as Australian of the Year, along with colleague and friend Professor Richard Scolyer. As co-medical directors of the Melanoma Institute Australia, the pair are credited with saving thousands of lives. Their pioneering immunotherapy treatments for advanced forms of the cancer have resulted in 5 year survival rates increasing from less than 5% to more than 50%. In June of last year Professor Scolyer was diagnosed with glioblastoma IDH wild-type, a cancer that is usually fatal within six to nine months. Rather than undergoing traditional treatment, Prof Scolyer decided to experiment on himself, with Professor Long designing world-first treatments based on their melanoma work.