Though it’s rare and accounts for just 3% of all cancer cases, pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of death from cancer.
Dr. Eileen O’Reilly, MD, a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, explains that the reason pancreatic cancer is so fatal is that symptoms don’t tend to start until the cancer has progressed and spread.
“It’s an extraordinarily sneaky [disease], and for most people, it has spread and metastasized at the time of diagnosis. This is partially because there aren’t any early warning signs and partially because there isn’t an established screening program for it,” Dr. O’Reilly explains. She adds that pancreatic cancer has a high potential for spreading to other parts of the body, which is what makes it so hard to treat.
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If pancreatic cancer is caught early, Dr. O’Reilly explains that it’s surgically removed and treatment also involves six months of chemotherapy. If it has spread, the treatment involves chemotherapy, which helps shrink the cancer and extend life. “Chemotherapy won’t cure the cancer, but it does help,” she says.
Pancreatic cancer treatment is on the cusp of improving greatly. Recently, results from a groundbreaking study showed that an oral pill called daraxonrasib doubles the survival rate for advanced pancreatic cancer. It’s the most exciting advancement ever for pancreatic cancer treatment.
Parade talked to oncologists about how the drug works and when it will become available.
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How the New Drug for Pancreatic Cancer Treatment Works
Dr. Avishek Kumar, MD, an oncologist with Regional Cancer Care Associates, explains that currently, advanced pancreatic cancer is treated with conventional chemotherapy. What makes the new drug, daraxonrasib, so revolutionary is its more targeted approach. “Daraxonrasib is exciting because it targets something that was widely considered ‘undruggable’ until now,” Dr. Kumar says.
Dr. O’Reilly, who is the lead author of the study on daraxonrasib, explains that the drug—which first started human clinical trials in 2022—works by targeting a mutation in the KRAS gene, which is present in the vast majority of people with pancreatic cancer. “The KRAS gene is involved in growth and metastasis [cancer spreading] and it’s generally responsible for the badness of pancreatic cancer,” she tells Parade.
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“In pancreatic cancer, the KRAS gene is switched on and is in an activated state. This activated state causes cancer growth and spreading,” Dr. O’Reilly says, explaining that daraxonrasib switches off the KRAS gene, which stops the cancer from growing or spreading.
As if this new medical advancement wasn’t exciting enough, another reason why the medical community is so excited about it is that the KRAS gene is found across many cancers, including colorectal, lung and ovarian cancer. This means that scientists may be able to develop more targeted treatments for these types of cancer using a similar targeted approach as daraxonrasib for pancreatic cancer.
Daraxonrasib is an oral pill taken three times a day. The research, which was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that people with pancreatic cancer who took the drug had an average survival time of 13 months, compared to a survival time of six months for people who were treated with chemotherapy.
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When Will the Drug Become Available?
While the study results are exciting, a few more steps still have to happen before daraxonrasib becomes available to patients with pancreatic cancer. Dr. O’Reilly explains that the Food and Drug Administration still has to review the data and approve the drug. “Our hope is that they will do this in the coming months,” she says.
After the FDA approves the drug, there will likely be a phase 4 clinical trial, which means the drug will continue to be tested in large populations to ensure its safety and efficacy. Manufacturers can start producing the drug after the FDA approves it. While this is happening, health insurance companies must decide how the drug will be covered and how much it will cost patients.
Both oncologists emphasize that the development of daraxonrasib is not the end of pancreatic cancer treatment developments; it’s a new beginning. While it’s exciting that the drug can double the survival time, researchers will still be hard at work discovering treatments that will extend it even longer, or even cure pancreatic cancer.
“It’s an important step to build on and the door is now open to lead to other treatments, not just with pancreatic cancer, but other cancers as well,” Dr. O’Reilly says.
That’s certainly something worth celebrating.
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Sources:
- Dr. Eileen O’Reilly, MD, gastrointestinal medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
- O’Reilly, E. M., Wainberg, Z. A., Hendifar, A. E., et al. (2026). Daraxonrasib or Chemotherapy in Previously Treated Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2605555.
- Dr. Avishek Kumar, MD, oncologist with Regional Cancer Care Associates.
- Development & Approval Process. U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
