The former chief scientist has been the subject of a state-of-the-art scientific experiment and he wants to talk about it – to express his thanks and determination to help others.

He has dedicated much of his life to championing science and, although semi-retired, remains an adviser to the federal government and several other bodies.

He has frequently been heard praising breakthroughs in research into cancer but his point now is that he is no longer on the sidelines – he has benefited from the research. And he wants other cancer patients to have at least the choice offered to him.

In 2015 he faced an early death after being diagnosed with stage-four metastatic kidney cancer – cancer that has spread around the body. Four tumours were detected in his lungs.

“The scary thing about this is that at that stage I had no symptoms at all – the cancer in the kidney was discovered by chance,” he says.

“I was given about three to five months, if I took no treatment. I said to the oncologist how easy that made the next question: ‘What do I do?’ He told me about chemotherapy and all that entailed.”

Enter the step that saved Chubb’s life: the specialist called Professor Howard Gurney, the director of medical oncology and clinical trials at Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney, to ask if any trials might be available for his patient.

There was one – an experimental immunotherapy treatment using two monoclonal antibodies in combination – Atezolizumab or Tecentriq and Bevacizumab – sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Roche. The study is comparing immunotherapy with appropriate chemotherapy.

After extensive testing, Chubb was accepted into the trial, acknowledging the risks of receiving the new treatment. The testing looks at a number of measures including biopsies of the tumour, scans and blood tests.

“If you meet the criteria, you stand a good chance of being admitted to one of the two arms of the testing,” he says. “I was admitted and randomised into the immunotherapy arm.

“I was interested in the trial. I was prepared to take the risk – if you can call it a risk – of entering a trial where you don’t really know what the outcome is going to be. They are treating the immune system, not the cancer, and getting the immune system primed to knock off the cancer.”

He pauses to reflect on an ANU link in his narrative. In his career as a neuroscientist and academic, he worked in senior roles at several universities before being appointed vice chancellor at ANU. He served in that position from 2001 to 2011, the year he became chief scientist and the ACT Australian of the Year.

However, years before, ANU medical researcher Professor Peter Doherty AC received the Nobel Prize jointly with another researcher for the discovery of how the immune system recognises which cells to destroy and which to leave alone.

Doherty may not have realised his work at the John Curtin School of Medical Research could ultimately lead to a treatment for cancer, so many years later, Chubb says.

“But I am glad he did it,” he says. “It also shows how long the lead-time is for a fundamental discovery about how some part of the body works and for that knowledge to be turned into, in this case, a great treatment. Without the science, we wouldn’t have the treatment. It is a long game, from bench to bedside, and all of it has to be played – from the first minute to the match-winning goal after the final siren.”

Chubb’s reprieve has propelled him to campaign for a formal register for clinical trials. He points out he entered the clinical trial because his doctor raised the idea and asked around.

“My advice, for people who have cancer, is make sure to ask your doctor whether there are places available in trials, because at least then you’ve got a choice,” he says.

“It’s not that trials are secret, but they’re just hard to find – there ought to be a place where all clinical trials are registered so clinicians anywhere in the country can plug in and find them. If there is such a comprehensive register, I couldn’t find it.”

He drives to Sydney every three weeks for an infusion of a combination of the two antibodies. “The big question now is – why does immunotherapy work in some people, but not for others?”

Does Chubb believe he is cured? “Maybe – I don’t think anybody knows,” he says.

“The good thing is that for 18 months there have been no detectable cancers in CT scans. They don’t know if that means it’s cured or that something is lurking somewhere waiting to reappear when the treatment comes to an end, but I guess I’ll be monitored now for quite a while.

“The side effects for me have been minimal – I get a dry mouth which means I can’t taste fine wine anymore but hopefully that will come back when the treatment finishes, and a Vindaloo even without extra chilli is out of the question.”

This article first published in ANU Reporter.