Daraxonrasib drug shows doubled survival for pancreatic cancer patients

A Phase 3 clinical trial of the oral KRAS‑targeting drug daraxonrasib involved roughly 500 patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Participants who received daraxonrasib lived a median 13.2 months, almost twice the 6.7 months recorded for standard chemotherapy, and their median progression‑free survival was 7.2 months versus 3.6 months with chemo. About one‑third of patients experienced tumor shrinkage of at least 30 %.

The drug works by binding multiple KRAS variants, a mutation present in over 90 % of pancreatic cancers, and is taken daily as a pill, reducing the burden of intravenous chemotherapy. Reported side effects such as rash, diarrhea, nausea and fatigue were generally mild, with few serious complications. Researchers, including Dr Elizabeth Jaffee, called the results a major advance, noting pancreatic cancer has long been described as a “death sentence.” Ongoing studies will examine long‑term outcomes and combinations with immunotherapy or surgery, with hopes of moving the therapy to earlier disease stages.

The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, offering new hope for a disease that historically has had very low survival rates.