Steve Holmes
Co-Founder and CEO, Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Australia
Late-Stage IV Metastatic Survivor
Turning lived expertise and biological intelligence into survival execution, today.
Steve’s Lived Experience
Steve is a Late-Stage IV metastatic cholangiocarcinoma survivor who achieved the first documented complete response on the cornerstone KEYNOTE-158 clinical trial. Having faced and survived both a six-month terminal prognosis and then just weeks to live, he and Claire founded Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Australia with a singular line in the sand: their foundational model is built entirely on survival execution, not advocacy and awareness.
Their mission focuses equally on today’s patient survival right now and delivering the biological intelligence needed to prevent families from becoming tomorrow’s newly diagnosed patients.
They both strongly believe that advocacy and awareness must follow the success of executing what works, not the other way around. While both have their part to play, in a crisis, funding advocacy and awareness over active execution is letting the tail wag the dog. Every day is a crisis for a patient and their family diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma. That is the crisis we must all turn up for every day. We do not campaign; we execute survival tactics all day, every day. That is what has been missing in this fight. To operationalise this, Steve deploys live, tactical systems engineered to move patients from confusion to rapid action before critical clinical windows close.
Leadership & Execution Architecture
Steve’s work is in cancer biology, specifically bile composition, flow, and the biliary ductal system that carries it. Most bile duct cancer patients do not lose options because of cancer alone. They lose them because understanding comes too late.
By translating its complex biology into a zero-cognitive-format that families can immediately use, we shorten the time between confusion and effective response. This delivers an advantage that completely unshackles patients and their families, maximising their survival opportunity from day one, while delivering the biological clarity needed for upstream prevention.
By mapping exactly what turns the bile composition and flow toxic, and where cells fail, he pinpoints precisely where the healthy sequence breaks. He targets the failure at its source, and focuses there. Two connected missions. One absolute execution:
Biological Intelligence and Execution (Cholangio.org)
- Mission: Prevent tomorrow’s patients, today!
The research engine focused on upstream prevention. It tracks how toxic bile composition and cellular breakdown cause ductal failure, reverse-engineering the failure points back to their root causes.
We bring this data forward into the light as a zero-cognitive-load delivery that families can immediately understand and use. There, it becomes a distinct biological advantage to the patient and their family rather than just a biological fact in the shadows.
By isolating these biological triggers, this system aims to break the stealthy silence of this disease before cancer can form, ensuring the family members of today do not become the patients of tomorrow.
Survival Intelligence and Execution (The OPR Framework)
- Mission: Today’s patient survival now, today!
The real-time learning system focused on keeping today’s patient alive. Steve is the architect of the Optimal Patient Response (OPR) Framework, which captures live patient journeys and translates raw biological data and lived experience into a real-time survival response. It is engineered to guide patients and their family through a precise trajectory designed to:
- Follow the execution process.
- Gain earlier biological understanding.
- Avoid common, preventable mistakes.
- Keep clinical options open.
- Drastically improve today’s patient survival response, today.
Community Intelligence and Execution
- Mission: A culture that is a survival system in itself.
The operational deployment layer that drives both fields. This framework organises patients, caregivers, and clinicians into a coordinated, active community survival network.
It is built to ensure that real-time intelligence reaches families on the ground in time to avoid preventable errors, move patients from confusion to rapid action, and maximise all options.
Anchored in three clear objectives:
- Today’s Patient Survival, Now, Today. Execute what works and what is possible right now. Eliminate all distractions to that.
- Prevent Tomorrow’s Patients, Today. Bring an understanding of cause to families earlier, so they do not become tomorrow’s newly diagnosed patients.
- Build a Culture that is a Survival System in itself. A powerful community understanding focused entirely on active survival execution over advocacy.
My Personal Code and Legacy
My standard is to give my best. That is all I can give, and that is all anyone can give of themselves. You cannot give more than that. My difference is that I do this all day, every day, without condition or guarantee. That was how I faced cancer, and that has become my life and my way.
My aspiration is to build the remarkable for others to benefit. That is how I stay at my best. That will be the legacy I leave. There can be no better purpose or privilege in life than to help others do the same.
System Contributions & Core Frameworks
Steve collaborates with many national and international molecular and research networks, global alliances, and clinical bodies to operationalise earlier patient action:
- Co-Founder & CEO, Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Australia
- Founder, Cholangio.org (Biological Intelligence Platform)
- Architect, The OPR (Optimal Patient Response) Framework
- Co-Author, Australian Clinical Guidelines for Cholangiocarcinoma
- Author, The Book of Cholangio and the Patient Navigator Series
Related Foundation Work
Learn more about the Foundation’s patient-led response work through the following pages:
