Experimental Pill Nearly Doubles Survival in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

A daily pill nearly doubled survival time for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, researchers announced Sunday, offering what specialists are calling the most significant therapeutic advance in decades against a disease that kills more than 52,000 Americans each year — including thousands of Floridians who face among the worst odds of any cancer diagnosis.

The drug, daraxonrasib, extended median survival to 13.2 months in patients whose metastatic pancreatic cancer had stopped responding to prior treatment, compared with 6.7 months for patients who received additional chemotherapy, according to findings published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago. The study randomly assigned the experimental pill or chemotherapy to 500 patients.

For Treasure Coast residents among the roughly 67,000 Americans expected to receive a new pancreatic cancer diagnosis this year, the results arrive as a rare signal of hope in a disease defined by grim statistics: a five-year overall survival rate of just 13 percent. [NEEDS VERIFICATION: county-level pancreatic cancer incidence data for Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties was not available at publication time.]

"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 works by blocking a mutated protein produced by so-called KRAS gene mutations — a molecular target that fuels tumor growth in more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancer cases and that researchers long considered "undruggable" because its structure resisted conventional therapies. Daraxonrasib uses what scientists describe as a molecular glue to bind with multiple KRAS subtypes simultaneously.

Dr. Brian Wolpin of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said the drug should become "a new standard of care" for previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer, presenting the findings. Researchers will explore its use earlier in the disease — potentially allowing tumor shrinkage to qualify more patients for surgery.

Patients on daraxonrasib reported less pain and a better quality of life than those on chemotherapy, though side effects include potentially severe rash and mouth sores.

Revolution Medicines, the drug's maker, funded the study. The Food and Drug Administration announced plans to expedite its review of the drug and is currently permitting expanded access for patients who meet specific criteria — a program that has already generated a surge of inquiries to oncology practices nationwide.

Patients or caregivers seeking information on the expanded access program should contact their oncologist or visit the FDA's expanded access database at accessdata.fda.gov to review eligibility requirements.

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