Health
Pancreatic cancer: New drug results prompt standing ovation at oncology conference
Key Points
A new drug for advanced pancreatic cancer is being hailed as a major breakthrough after trial results showed that it almost doubles survival time in patients previously treated with chemotherapy. Phase 3 trial results for daraxonrasib, a once daily oral treatment, have been described as a potential “revolution” in treating pancreatic cancer, which has the lowest survival of all common cancers, with five year survival less than 7%.In the RASolute 302 trial of 500 patients with metastatic...
A new drug for advanced pancreatic cancer is being hailed as a major breakthrough after trial results showed that it almost doubles survival time in patients previously treated with chemotherapy.Phase 3 trial results for daraxonrasib, a once daily oral treatment, have been described as a potential “revolution” in treating pancreatic cancer, which has the lowest survival of all common cancers, with five year survival less than 7%.In the RASolute 302 trial of 500 patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), those taking daraxonrasib as a second line treatment lived for a median of 13.2 months while chemotherapy recipients lived 6.7 months. Patients in the daraxonrasib group had fewer side effects.The results, released at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine,12 prompted a standing ovation at the conference, with some members of the audience in tears.Rachna Shroff,...