Daraxonrasib pill doubles survival in pancreatic cancer

A new pill has been shown to nearly double survival time for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, a finding researchers are calling a landmark breakthrough for a notoriously difficult-to-treat disease. The results from a major clinical trial were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

The drug, daraxonrasib, targets a mutated protein known as KRAS that fuels tumor growth in more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancer cases. In the trial of 500 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer that had progressed after prior treatment, those who received the daily pill lived for a median of 13.2 months. Patients who received standard chemotherapy lived for a median of 6.6 to 6.7 months. The drug also caused fewer severe side effects, with only about 1.2 percent of patients stopping treatment due to side effects compared to 11.2 percent in the chemotherapy group.

Oncologists not involved in the study described the results as unprecedented. Dr. Rachna Shroff, chief of gastrointestinal oncology at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, said the data was so impactful it moved her to tears, calling it a landscape-changing development....