Experimental pill promises new hope for deadly pancreatic cancer
[June 01, 2026]
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON (AP) — A novel pill helped people with advanced pancreatic
cancer live longer, researchers reported Sunday, raising hopes of
long-needed better treatments for one of the deadliest types of cancer.
“While not curing the cancer, it is a very large step forward,” said Dr.
Zev Wainberg, of the University of California, Los Angeles, who helped
lead the study.
The drug is called daraxonrasib and it blocks a mutated protein that
fuels tumor growth in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases — a
target that had eluded treatment for decades.
The daily pills nearly doubled survival time, with fewer severe side
effects, in a study that randomly assigned the experimental drug or more
chemotherapy to 500 patients whose metastatic, or spreading, cancer had
quit responding to prior treatment. The findings were published in the
New England Journal of Medicine and presented Sunday at the American
Society for Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.
Those taking daraxonrasib lived for a median of 13.2 months compared
with 6.7 months for chemotherapy recipients. While that may seem like a
small improvement, Wainberg said it marked the first drug to show a
substantial advantage over chemotherapy.
“Having treated pancreatic cancer for 16 years, I actually started
crying" when first seeing the study results, Dr. Rachna Shroff of the
University of Arizona Cancer Center, who wasn't involved with the
research, said from the ASCO meeting. She was struck by how “patients
stayed on this treatment because it was providing durable and meaningful
benefit to them.”
The pills’ effects eventually wane but recipients used them for
significantly longer than the comparison group stayed on chemotherapy,
reporting less pain and a better quality of life as their tumors shrank.
Many still were using the drug after the data was analyzed, which
Wainberg said means the survival gap may widen as researchers continue
tracking them.
Dr. Brian Wolpin, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, presented the
findings Sunday. He said the drug should become “a new standard of care”
for previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer, adding that
researchers also will explore its use earlier in the disease, including
to see if tumor shrinkage might let more patients qualify for surgery.
Side effects most likely to affect pill usage were a rash that can be
severe and mouth sores, he said.
Maker Revolution Medicines funded the study and the Food and Drug
Administration plans to expedite review of the drug. Meanwhile, the
agency is allowing what’s called “expanded access” to the experimental
drug for patients who meet certain criteria. The drug garnered public
attention when former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse described on “60 Minutes” how
he's had less pain while taking it. Oncologists are being flooded with
requests as the special access program gets started.
[to top of second column]
|
This undated microscope image from USC via the NIH shows pancreatic
cancer cells, nuclei in blue, growing as a sphere encased in
membranes, red. (Min Yu/Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative
Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC, USC Norris Comprehensive
Cancer Center, File)
Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly forms in large part because
it’s hard to detect before it starts spreading to other organs. The
American Cancer Society estimates about 67,000 new cases will be
diagnosed in the U.S. this year and more than 52,000 people will die
from the disease. The five-year overall survival rate is 13%.
Unlike with other cancers that have benefitted from a variety of
chemotherapy alternatives, pancreatic cancer has been harder to tackle.
Cancer specialists not involved in the new research expressed optimism
that this may be a turning point in the quest for new options, with
dozens of experimental drugs in development.
The new drug targets mutations in the RAS gene family that normally
regulates cell growth. So-called KRAS mutations are especially critical
in fueling pancreatic cancer. But a structure that made it hard for
drugs to stick to the mutated proteins meant this cancer driver was long
considered “undruggable.”
Revolution Medicines’ drug uses what’s essentially a molecular glue to
bind with multiple KRAS subtypes. Wainberg said researchers next will
probe whether the drug worked better in certain of those subtypes.
The drug will change pancreatic cancer treatment, said Dr. Andrew
Coveler of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, who wasn’t involved in the
research.
“This thing works drastically differently,” he said.
Wainberg said other drugs in development target specific KRAS subtypes.
Other approaches in earlier stages of testing include vaccines designed
to prevent recurrence after pancreatic cancer surgery by teaching the
immune system to recognize the mutated protein.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
