For more than 40 years, Queensland women have been turning to Professor Chris Pyke at a desperate time of their lives.
More than 10,000 newly-diagnosed breast cancer patients have passed through his consulting rooms since he began practising as a breast cancer specialist in 1990s Brisbane.
Year after year, those women’s chances of beating breast cancer have steadily improved thanks to cancer treatment breakthroughs and his expertise, commitment and compassion.
It’s no wonder that his patients call him the ‘Godfather’ of breast cancer surgeons; the modest man who can work miracles against the most common women’s cancer in Australia.
Prof Pyke’s personal passion for cancer surgery stemmed from his two sisters being diagnosed with the disease.
“I started working at Mater in 1975 as a phlebotomist, and became a medical student the year after,” Prof Pyke, 66, said.
“When I think back to my ‘why’, it was because of my sisters.
“My two lovely sisters both got cancer in their 30s while I was overseas doing more training in the UK and USA.
“With no family history, one developed acute myeloid leukaemia and the other stage two breast cancer.”
He said his sisters’ had young families, both underwent approved treatment including chemotherapy, and both survived more than 20 years which allowed them to achieve many milestones, including seeing their grandchildren.
“Having said this, the toll on their families and their treatment and recurrences was enormous – hypervigilance was the norm,” he said.
“Their cancers made me keen to do research, but I was already on a pathway to surgery before they were diagnosed. I had already won my Fellowship at the Nottingham Breast Unit when my sister was diagnosed.
“If anything, their cancers, their suffering, their grace under duress, and their family support were an inspiration for me – something to hold me to account.
“I felt that I was honouring their sacrifice by helping my own patients.”
Prof Pyke’s performed his first breast surgery in 1991, his patient had breast cancer and was diagnosed during pregnancy.
“I remember that particular patient had a combined caesarean and mastectomy operation,” he said.
Professionally, Prof Pyke has been driven by the research and advancements in surgical techniques and technology over the past four decades that have seen 90 per cent of women with breast cancer having mastectomies in the 1980s decline to just 10 per cent in 2024.
“There has been a revolution in treating breast cancer,” he said.
“Both the breast conservation rate and the prophylactic mastectomy rates have increased, and the reason is gene testing.
“The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes were discovered in the mid-90s and we now know that the carrier rate in the community is one in 300.
“We know that many asymptomatic people carry these genes, so this story isn’t quite finished yet.”
He said in the mid-1990s an era of plastic surgery involved free-flap breast reconstruction, a technique used after a patient had a mastectomy to reconstruct the breast.
“Free-flap breast construction involves cutting off skin, fat and blood vessels from somewhere else on your body, then using this tissue as a transplant to recreate new breasts – women often choose their abdomen (tummy tuck), thighs, or their bottom.
“It’s like a kidney transplant, like a living organ but only suitable for a certain size breast.”
Later, neoadjuvant therapy came into play where chemotherapy was inevitable, he said.
“Firstly chemotherapy would be used to shrink the tumour down to almost nothing and then surgery would be done to remove it. About 30 per cent of breast cancers are treated that way now, and that number is rising.”
From 2010 onwards there was a widespread use of biological agents, with a drug called Herceptin.
Herceptin works against HER2-positive breast cancers by blocking the ability of the cancer cells to receive chemical signals that tell the cells to grow.
“The drug is an immune therapy, which means that when the drug attaches onto the cancer cell it is killed by your own immune system,” he said.
So where to next?
“Currently there is no accurate blood test for cancer recurrence. Recurrence is more common than you think. Although the cure rare for early breast cancer runs at around 90 per cent, the recurrence rate is around 20 per cent,” Prof Pyke said.
“Around half of the patients die after their recurrence, the other half remain cured.
“Early detection of recurrence might make a big difference,” he explained.
“Currently at Mater we are actively doing some research on ‘test tube breasts’ which looks at testing a drug on variations of response to chemotherapy and new drugs of breast ‘organoids’ in the lab.
“We are also looking at cancer recurrence saliva testing which could pave the way for earlier detection and different treatments in the future.”
Prof Pyke said he was “grounded” in laboratory procedures at Mater by working in the biochemistry laboratory as a medical student, which is where his passion for research started.
He did further laboratory research for part of his time at the US Mayo Clinic, and at the Qld Institute of Medical Research, his laboratory work was in the molecular biology of cancers – with his own patient’s volunteered tissue being used.
“This looked mainly at prognostic factors for breast cancer,” he said.
“After that I have been lucky enough to be involved in numerous clinical trials – local and national – some looking at treatment de-escalation, some at exercise intervention, and others at quality of life after surgery.”
While no Queenslander has done more to support women with breast cancer than Prof Pyke, his multidisciplinary, team-focused approach has been inspirational for those he has worked alongside, and as the principal investigator on multiple Mater Research breast cancer studies he has helped further enhance the care patients receive today.
“In the last 20 years, the emergence of multidisciplinary care for all cancer groups has mandated that multidisciplinary team meetings occur multiple times per week for the sequencing and extent of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for each patient,” he said.
While the five-year survival rate of those diagnosed with breast cancer is more than 90 per cent, Prof Pyke said every death and every complication is a cause of discomfort for the practitioner, in questioning whether every management step had been performed to “top of scope”.
“When breast cancer patients’ die, it is a long farewell, with a lot of simultaneous support and grieving,” Prof Pyke said.
“Having said that, it is mostly a peaceful event – most have time to accept their looming mortality.
“That makes it enormously easy for their doctors, who continue to be of service until the end.
By the end, most of the patients and doctors have spent a long time together, and there is a great sense of loss with the passing of each.”
Prof Pyke, who treats about 300 new breast cancer patients each year, is a firm believer that “no one can underestimate the value of a woman’s health”.
“Women are the glue of our society, they have many roles. To be able to get them back up and functioning, and working, is a great achievement,” he said.
Prof Pyke’s legacy extends beyond the thousands of patients he’s helped over the decades.
He’s also been instrumental in educating and mentoring Mater’s current crop of top tier breast surgeons.
Mater Private Hospital Brisbane, was internationally accredited as a Centre of Excellence for breast cancer care last year, said Prof Pyke said.
“It is a testament to the incredibly talented surgeons we have doing world-class work at Mater.
“Our patients will be in good hands, the next generation is better than me,” he smiled.
For many of Prof Pyke’s patients, he has been the person they can always count on.
Mater Private Hospital Clinical Nurse Consultant Maria Maxwell has worked alongside Prof Pyke for 30 years and said he “cares for the whole person, not just the disease”.
“Prof Pyke has an amazing ability to bring calmness to any situation,” Ms Maxwell said.
“His surgical excellence and nurturing guidance are the foundation of relationships that have created trust and friendship amongst all his colleagues.
“I’ve got to know that the kindness and compassion he shows to patients on the ward also flows from the minute a breast cancer referral arrives on his desk.”
Ms Maxwell started as a young graduate nurse and said she felt fortunate to look after Prof Pyke’s breast cancer patients on the ward.
“The experience gained during the early years inspired and encouraged me to further my studies in breast care nursing and I haven’t looked back.”
Jodie Shtumcke, Former Olympian – Case Study 1
Water polo Olympian Jodie Stuhmcke, 43, and her mother Linda Stuhmcke, 70, received a breast cancer diagnosis within 24 months of each other.
The mother-daughter duo have battled the disease with Prof Pyke by their side, every step of the way.
Linda said she was concerned about her daughter’s ‘she’ll be right attitude’ and encouraged her to see Prof Pyke, who had treated her two years earlier.
“I knew we didn’t have much time to muck around,” she said.
“I said ‘please go see Chris, I know he is the best and he looks after his patients’.
“Chris Pyke is the Godfather of breast surgeons.
“For me, he was so reassuring during a time when I was so upset about everything.
“My family is my life and I prayed everything was going to be OK so I could look after them – Chris made that happen,” she said wiping away tears.”
Linda said having undergone surgery with Prof Pyke, she knew her daughter, the youngest of her four children, would be in safe hands.
Jodie detected a lump in her breast in December last year and had a biopsy done in January.
“Within 24 hours I had a call from my GP to say I had breast cancer,” Jodie said.
“I had an ovarian cyst operated on about 15 years ago and kept telling myself ‘it’ll be fine’.”
Jodie took her mother’s advice and had her first surgery with Prof Pyke on 30 January, five days after receiving her diagnosis.
She said watching her beloved mum go through cancer treatment, to then discovering she herself had a more aggressive form of breast cancer, is something she cannot forget.
Two operations to clear the disease were unsuccessful, and Jodie required a bilateral mastectomy and plastic reconstructive surgery at Mater Hospital in South Brisbane which saved Jodie’s life, after her mum underwent a lumpectomy to remove the cancer.
While both are now in remission, they say it’s thanks to Prof Pyke they can create more memories together and raise awareness about breast cancer.
“Having cancer is the toughest thing I have been through in my life,” Jodie said.
“I have been to Olympic camps, I have three older brothers, I am strong willed and tenacious, I have had surgery on my groin due to a water polo injury, and had painful Cortisone injections, but those days in hospital for my breast cancer surgery where I could not move due to the nature of the procedure were so hard for me.
“I am an athlete. I am an Olympian. But this was another level.”
Jodie said Prof Pyke and his team reassured her she would be OK during her battle with breast cancer.
Jodie, who competed during the Athens 2004 Olympics, is a well-known Queensland water polo player and coach, and a mentor to so many young women, yet she only shared her life-changing ordeal with close friends and family.
The water polo coach and science teacher said her diagnosis in January with breast cancer had been nothing short of “scary”.
“Turns out it was stage two invasive breast cancer,” she said.
“I went in to have the lump and tissue around it removed and thought surgery would be pretty straightforward.”
She remembers Prof Pyke calling her a few days after the operation to say her margins weren’t clear.
Jodie returned to see Prof Pyke with her wife Jess, a nurse at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, and who has been her “pillar of strength”.
Prof Pyke explained to Jodie that her cancer, known as invasive lobular carcinoma, grows in strands.
“I have challenging breast tissue which doesn’t always show on the mammogram and of course, it’s tricky to get to,” she said.
And so, Prof Pyke needed to take more tissue in a second operation, she said,
A few days after her second surgery, Jodie went to her parents’ home waiting for Prof Pyke’s follow up phone call.
She and her family were preparing to celebrate with champagne and enjoy a nice dinner together – hoping to hear that this time all the cancer had been removed.
However, when Prof Pyke called, she could hear the devastation in his voice, she recalls.
“I am so sorry, the margins are still not clear – this cancer is a lot bigger than we thought, you are going to need another operation,” he explained to Jodie.
A bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction was done on 2 May and Jodie had the BRCA gene testing to rule out the cancer being hereditary.
With a young niece, she said she wanted to find out if the cancer was hereditary.
“The test results took four weeks to come back and the results were negative, I was scheduled for a bilateral mastectomy after that,” she cried. “I just couldn’t take another chance.
“Prof Pyke had drawn a picture showing the percentage of the cancer remaining if I didn’t have a mastectomy – it was an obvious decision for me as there was an increased risk of the cancer returning in the second breast if I didn’t have the bilateral mastectomy.”
“And the percentage of the cancer returning was quite high if I didn’t have the operation.”
Seven days after having both her breasts removed and immediate reconstruction during an almost 11-hour operation, Jodie was relieved to hear a week later that she was “cancer free”.
“I cried then, and I am crying now,” she said. “It felt like this tiny thing was manageable, and then it turned into a monster.
“Pathology showed there was more cancer in my left breast, hiding in a completely different area. I am glad I went down this path with Prof Pyke.
“The type of cancer I have hides in your breast tissue and it’s hard to detect in mammograms.
“It grew like a tentacle up to my armpit.”
Jodie’s treatment now involves taking an injection (Zoladex) every 27 days to stop the cancer which feeds off female hormones, and a tablet (Tamoxifen) daily.
A 12-month plan is in place to see how Jodie feels with her current treatment as her next option is having her ovaries removed – which she is not ready to do, just yet.
Jodie said she felt “safe” in the care of Prof Pyke and described him as “nurturing with a funny sense of humour”.
“I always knew he had my cancer under control and felt safe with him,” she said.
Linda was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer on 8 Feb 2022 and is now in remission.
“My mum has been so supportive throughout my journey,” she sobbed.
“I remember her visiting me in hospital and telling me she wished it was her lying in the bed and not me.
An emotional Linda said it was an “absolute shock” when doctors discovered something suspicious in her breast.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Linda said.
“I had a mammogram and I knew I had fatty tissue in my breasts but never thought about cancer.”
Linda said after sharing the news with family, she found out two aunties had battled breast cancer and one of her father’s sisters had cancer too.
“I know what Jodie has been through and she’s been through a lot – she is a very brave woman,” she said.
“I am so proud of her and I am glad to be here for her, and our family but we wouldn’t be here without Prof Chris Pyke.”
Amy Gibbs, Brisbane Nurse – Case Study 2
At just 27 years of age, Brisbane nurse Amy Gibbs found a lump in her breast and was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer—one of the most aggressive types of breast cancer.
Now, almost five years since her diagnosis, the Mater Private Hospital clinical nurse is pregnant with her second ‘miracle’ baby.
It was during her gruelling chemotherapy treatment that genetic testing revealed that Mrs Gibbs’ breast cancer had stemmed from having the BRCA Type 2 gene.
After finding out she had the BRCA gene, Mrs Gibbs encouraged her family to undergo genetic testing – and discovered that her father, brother and grandfather also carried the variant.
Mrs Gibbs, now 31, was advised by Mater Private Hospital Brisbane breast surgeon Prof Chris Pyke to begin fertility conservation treatment before starting chemotherapy and other treatments.
She underwent initial chemotherapy treatment for six months, which consisted of three months of AC therapy (a combination of two chemotherapy drugs), followed by a further three months of Taxol drug therapy.
“During these treatments I was put into medically-induced menopause to protect my ovaries and hopefully maintain function to conceive naturally,” Mrs Gibbs said.
“I also lost everything that I thought made me a woman – my long hair, beautiful eyebrows and eyelashes, but my husband told me I looked beautiful each and every day.”
Mrs Gibbs is thankful for the advice she received from Prof Pyke to preserve her fertility and said she was “very blessed” to have fallen pregnant naturally with her eldest daughter Emilia, 2, and now her second baby due in October.
“Prof Pyke pushed for me to be genetically tested, and I am forever grateful,” she said.
“It’s something I would have never considered.
“I was equipped with information to make a decision to have a bilateral mastectomy by Prof Pyke which helped alleviate the stress and anxiety of breast cancer reoccurrence for me.”
Mrs Gibbs described Prof Pyke as an “incredible man” who has not only helped her, but thousands of other Australian women.
“I was recommended to see Prof Pyke by my mum’s friend who had breast cancer.
“A lot of women wouldn’t be here today if wasn’t for Prof Pyke.”
Now in remission, Mrs Gibbs said she is “thankful to be alive”.
“I was that person who said ‘I don’t want to have kids’, but as soon as I got the news I had cancer, I felt the need to have a baby – I couldn’t leave this world without leaving a legacy behind.
“I also didn’t want to leave my husband with nothing or no one.
“I look at Emilia and she is such a blessing.”
Mrs Gibbs said the scars on her chest were a constant reminder of her battle with breast cancer, and she knows in years to come her children will start to ask questions.
“Our children will have a 50 per cent chance of inheriting the gene but we have decided to wait until they are of age to decide if they want to do the gene testing themselves,” Mrs Gibbs said.
