00:00Vancouver Cable Car
01:30So, I want to talk about the importance of early diagnosis, early detection.
01:57This is what a vertical section of the skin looks like when you look at it down a microscope.
02:03The top part of the skin is called the epidermis and the bottom part is the dengue-depand.
02:08But one of the side effects is it causes mutations to your DNA.
02:12And when you accumulate those mutations, they form a tumor, melanoma.
02:17I'm just going to flick us along the side here and show you the melanoma in this particular patient.
02:25And as we move here, we can see on the screen these large, pleomorphic-looking cells, some of which have pigment within them.
02:36So this is a melanoma. In fact, this is not a tough diagnosis of melanoma to make.
02:41But in about 25-20% of cases, it can be difficult.
02:45And we see some patients, unfortunately, who are not diagnosed correctly.
02:50So we've developed a molecular diagnostic test, which we know is very accurate for diagnosis.
02:57And if it's melanoma, we want to work out, is it a bad melanoma or a little risk of it spreading?
03:03And about 95% of people who are diagnosed with melanoma will be cured from simple excision.
03:10But when it gets thick like this, it's a bit more of a worry.
03:13So in this particular patient, melanoma was on the forearm.
03:18And then we sampled what's called a lymph gland from under the diagnosed and prognosticated for melanoma patients.
03:30I'll now pass you over to one of my patients, Adam Brown.
03:37When I met Adam, Christy here was pregnant with this young man, Harry.
03:43And he had stage 4 advanced melanoma.
03:47And we treated him on a clinical trial of immunotherapy over 10 years ago now, just about 10 years ago.
03:54Advanced melanoma, stage 4 melanoma, usually had a survival of less than 5% at 5 years.
04:00Most patients would have survived 9 to 12 months.
04:04And effectively, Adam is what we call one of our long-term survivors.
04:09And he's gone on to have children and a family.
04:13Two miracles.
04:14Yeah, and wonderful.
04:16And so you came here to get him treated.
04:20The original melanoma was found at a practice in the city.
04:25And then I was sent here.
04:27It started with some surgery through Professor Stretch over there.
04:31And then I was re-diagnosed.
04:33And then I was lucky enough to meet Georgina, just as her trial was about to begin.
04:38And I was the first patient on the first of the combined immunotherapy.
04:43And this was how long ago?
04:44That started in January 2015, as the commencement of the trial.
04:50I've got some scans to show you.
04:53The treatment isn't too bad, is it?
04:55Because the immunotherapy...
04:57There was minimal side effects.
05:00It didn't stop me carrying on with normal life.
05:03So you don't need it now?
05:05No, I'm off treatment.
05:07He had it for 2 years.
05:09And then in 2019, he actually developed a melanoma that had spread to the brain.
05:14And had more immunotherapy and surgery.
05:17See a spot there?
05:19Yes.
05:20And here.
05:21You see it's not on the other side.
05:22And here.
05:23All gone.
05:24Doing very well.
05:26When we stimulate the immune system, though, it can get confused.
05:30We can start attacking normal tissue.
05:33And there are side effects that we become very expert at managing.
05:37Oh, you do?
05:38Yes, I do.
05:39That's really encouraging.
05:40Yes, yes.
05:41That's another patient who's done very well with multiple metastases.
05:44So the black are what we call the metastases, where it's spread around.
05:48And this is what we're working on now.
05:50So in our clinical trials, we're using a lot of mRNA technology.
05:54We've got seven trials, actually, using mRNA technology.
05:57Not just vaccines, but other incredible, incredible leaps in medical research.
06:03So these are some of the things, those numbers of patients.
06:05And that's when we do it around the world.
06:07So some of our trials are around the world stage.
06:11Some of them are much earlier, what we call first in humans.
06:15But our goal, zero deaths from melanoma.
06:19I haven't been here in a very long time.
06:27Passion. Passion and love.
06:36I'm glad I didn't have to drag you away from all this.
06:43This is me?
06:45Are you still ill?
06:46Just a bit.
06:49Clothing is the best.
06:51A shade, sunglasses and sunscreen.
07:04Yes.
07:05There's a few rumours that it's the right side for you.
07:08You're welcome.
07:09You're welcome.
07:16Thank you so much for coming to visit us
07:19and for us to have the opportunity to talk more about Australia's national cancer,
07:24the one with the highest incidence in the world.
07:27And we've worked so hard to achieve our goal of zero deaths from melanoma.
07:32So thank you so much.
07:35Well, thank you.
07:37And particularly for shining a spotlight on Australia's national cancer, melanoma.
07:42So thank you very much.
07:43I hope you do.
07:45I hope so too.
07:46We all hope so.
07:48Thank you very much.
07:50I'm so glad they're still making the proper ones.
07:52Yes.
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