101-year-old dubbed 'oldest ever cancer survivor'

101-year-old Bert Collins has already lived nearly twice as long as other Australian men born in 1916 — and now he's beaten cancer.

And it’s all thanks to a breakthrough new treatment doctors thought they’d try on the centenarian.

The Bankstown boy - who fought the Japanese in New Guinea during World War II where he was posted to a village inhabited by cannibals, mosquitoes and crocodiles - wasn’t going to let melanoma get between him and his next birthday. Doctors believe he may be one of the oldest people ever to survive cancer.

When he was diagnosed with a stage IV melanoma late last year, Bert had tumours in his brain, his liver, his bones and his lungs and had just a few months to live.Bert’s local oncologist thought he was too frail for treatment but he was referred to Melanoma Institute Australia’s Dr Alex Menzies for a second opinion.

“There is a myth that older Australians shouldn’t be considered for treatment but newer immunotherapy treatments are highly efficient with minimal toxicity and we have many patients in their 80s and 90s receiving treatment,” said Dr Menzies. “Bert was much more fit than most men 20 years younger, and therefore his age did not pose a barrier to treatment.”

After four treatments of the breakthrough new treatment Keytruda, which harnesses the body’s own immune system to beat cancer, Bert’s melanoma has disappeared.