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Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers, with a survival rate as low as 3 percent for stage IV patients.An experimental medication, daraxonrasib, was found to nearly double survival time for participants in a recent clinical trial.The drug is not-yet FDA-approved, but doctors able to apply to get it for their patients.<\/p>\n
Pancreatic cancer is a notoriously deadly disease, with an overall five-year survival rate of just 13 percent<\/a>. In patients with stage IV pancreatic cancer<\/a>, which is a majority of people with the disease, that five-year survival rate drops to just three percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cStage IV pancreatic cancer has historically had a very poor prognosis,\u201d says Shubham Pant, MD<\/a>, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. That may be changing, though. A new medication called daraxonrasib is generating a lot of buzz after nearly doubling survival time in clinical trials.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have never seen results of this caliber in pancreatic cancer treatment,\u201d says Ignacio Garrido Laguna, MD<\/a>, PhD<\/a>, chair of early therapeutics development at Moffitt Cancer Center.<\/p>\n The medication just got through phase 3 of its trials and is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but the latest findings have been so jaw-dropping that oncologists around the country are scrambling to get access for their patients. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n Meet the experts: Ignacio Garrido Laguna, MD<\/a>, PhD<\/a>, is chair of early therapeutics development at Moffitt Cancer Center. Peter Hosein, MD<\/a>, is the associate director for clinical research with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute<\/a>. Brandon Huffman, MD<\/a>, is a medical oncologist in the gastrointestinal cancer center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Shubham Pant, MD<\/a>, is a gastrointestinal oncologist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.<\/p>\n What did the study find?<\/p>\n For the study<\/a>, which was recently presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, researchers recruited 500 people with pancreatic cancer across North America, Europe, and Asia. All of the participants had already been through chemotherapy<\/a> for metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC), and they were all required to be able to carry out most of their usual activities.<\/p>\n After about 8.5 months, the group that was randomly assigned to receive daraxonrasib had an overall survival rate of about 13.2 months, while the group that received chemotherapy had a survival rate of about 6.6 to 6.7 months, depending on the type of tumor the participant had. That means the survival time was nearly doubled with daraxonrasib compared to chemo.<\/p>\n The patients who received daraxonrasib also had a lower incidence of serious side effects than those who went through chemotherapy\u2014which makes a big difference when it comes to quality of life. Forty-four percent of patients in the daraxonrasib group experienced those more intense side effects while 57.5 percent of the chemotherapy group did. Based on side effects, only 1.2 percent of people in the daraxonrasib group stopped their treatment, compared to 11.2 percent of those in the chemotherapy group.<\/p>\n What\u2019s new about this drug?<\/p>\n Daraxonrasib is an experimental medication, meaning it is new and not yet approved. But the results of this study are being submitted to the FDA to support its approval, and more trials are already underway.<\/p>\n As for what makes this med so special\u2014aside from its effectiveness\u2014it\u2019s an oral pill that is much more targeted than chemo and functions entirely differently. \u201cIt has a very novel mechanism of action,\u201d Dr. Laguna says. Daraxonrasib targets the KRAS protein, turning it off and stopping cancer<\/a> growth\u2014whether or not a patient has a mutation in that protein.<\/p>\n That said, \u201cthe vast majority of pancreatic cancers are driven by a KRAS mutation,\u201d explains Peter Hosein, MD<\/a>, associate director for clinical research with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute<\/a>. We\u2019re talking more than 90 percent of cases.<\/p>\n There are other drugs approved to target a KRAS subtype called G12C, but that\u2019s just one subtype, Dr. Hosein says, and it\u2019s less common. \u201cDaraxonrasib can inhibit any subtype of KRAS and is the first drug in this class of \u2018panRAS\u2019 inhibitors to show success in a large phase 3 study,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n While the drug is effective, it\u2019s still not a cure.<\/p>\n Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers<\/a>, per Cleveland Clinic<\/a>. One of the biggest reasons is that pancreatic cancer is often caught during later stages. \u201cUnfortunately, we don\u2019t have tools to make an early diagnosis,\u201d says Dr. Laguna. \u201cMost of our patients will be diagnosed with very advanced metastatic disease.\u201d<\/p>\n
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