Health
A Doctor With Brain Cancer Is Helping Transform Its Treatment
The Australian scientist sees his illness not as a death sentence, but an opportunity to transform treatment for a stubbornly intractable form of cancer.
Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer, following a treatment session on Oct. 5.
Photographer: Lisa Maree Williams/BloombergWhen Richard Scolyer was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor in June, he grasped the test results as well as any of his doctors. One of the world’s top cancer pathologists, he gave himself nine months to live at most.
Stage-four glioblastoma multiforme — the most common brain malignancy in adults — is notoriously lethal, even with the best care available. Most of the 14,000 Americans diagnosed each year die within 16 months.