Jonathan Stretch

Associate Professor Jonathan Stretch AM, D.Phil (Oxon), FRACS, serves as Associate Professor in Melanoma and Surgical Oncology within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. A specialist plastic surgeon with nearly 30 years of experience, he earned his MB BS from the University of New South Wales and D.Phil in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford in 1991, with a thesis on the local dissemination of primary cutaneous melanoma. Stretch completed specialist surgical training in plastic surgery at Royal North Shore Hospital, Westmead Hospital, and Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1987. He pursued post-fellowship training as an Overseas Fellow in Plastic Surgery at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford in 1988, followed by a Clinical Research Fellowship in the Nuffield Department of Surgery from 1989 to 1991, during which he also lectured in surgery. Appointed to Royal North Shore Hospital in 1991, he joined the Sydney Melanoma Unit—now Melanoma Institute Australia—and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 2002. As a founding member of the Melanoma Institute Australia Board of Directors since 2007, he specializes in reconstructive surgery for skin cancer, melanoma, and skin oncology, emphasizing functional and aesthetic outcomes alongside oncological results.

Stretch's research centers on melanoma management, including sentinel lymph node biopsy, neoadjuvant immunotherapy, recurrence risk prediction tools, and surgical techniques for melanoma subtypes such as lentigo maligna and ear melanoma. He has authored or co-authored 148 publications, cited over 6,700 times, with key works including 'Neoadjuvant Nivolumab and Ipilimumab in Resectable Stage III Melanoma' (New England Journal of Medicine, 2024), 'Cartilage Resection in the Surgical Management of Ear Melanoma' (Annals of Surgical Oncology, 2025), 'Radiotherapy Versus Imiquimod for Complex Lentigo Maligna' (Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 2025), and contributions to 'Whole-genome landscapes of major melanoma subtypes.' His contributions have advanced multidisciplinary treatment strategies and clinical decision-making in surgical oncology. Stretch was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012 for service to medicine in melanoma surgery.

Professional Email: jonathan.stretch@sydney.edu.au