00:04When the results came in, Professor Georgina Long and her team were stunned.
00:1042%. That number is phenomenal. We did not expect it to be that high.
00:16A 42% cut in the risk of recurrence or death for advanced melanoma,
00:22which just 15 years ago was a near-death sentence.
00:26For the first time ever, we have shown that we can give the immune system a fingerprint,
00:35a specific code, a personalised vaccine.
00:38The stuff of science fiction now in a lab,
00:42with Australian scientists spearheading the cutting-edge trial.
00:46It involves the creation of tailor-made treatments based on each patient's tumour,
00:52analysing how the cells had mutated, then using Nobel Prize winning mRNA technology
00:59to teach the immune system how to attack it.
01:02Given together with typical immunotherapy drugs, they say the vaccine is a game changer.
01:09I think we'll kind of open up the potential to use this technology for other cancers.
01:14Tony was one of more than a thousand people worldwide who took part in the trial.
01:20I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to be here for my family.
01:25Scans this week showed he's still cancer-free.
01:29In Australia, melanoma kills one person every six hours.
01:34The skin cancer has been the focus of both Professor Long and her late research partner Richard Scoliette.
01:42People die of cancer all the time and it's heartbreaking, but it's real.
01:47And so I'm very driven to do as much as I can in the short life I have.
01:52A drive for life that's led to a breakthrough.
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