A phase 3 trial found daraxonrasib nearly doubled overall survival in previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer.The drug targets KRAS-driven cancer signalling, long considered one of the hardest targets in oncology.The result is a major step, but side effects and regulatory approval will shape how quickly it reaches patients.<\/p>\n
Pancreatic cancer has long been one of the most difficult cancers to treat.<\/p>\n
One major reason is KRAS.<\/p>\n
More than 90% of pancreatic tumours are driven by mutations in this gene.<\/p>\n
KRAS acts like a growth switch.<\/p>\n
When mutated, it can become stuck in the \u201con\u201d position, telling cancer cells to keep multiplying.<\/p>\n
For decades, KRAS was considered almost undruggable.<\/p>\n
Its protein surface lacked the usual pockets that drugs need to bind effectively.<\/p>\n
That left advanced pancreatic cancer treatment heavily dependent on chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
Chemotherapy can slow disease, but it is often blunt, toxic and limited by resistance.<\/p>\n
Daraxonrasib takes a different route.<\/p>\n
Instead of attaching directly to KRAS, it binds to a molecule called cyclophilin A.<\/p>\n
This complex can then bind to active KRAS and shut down its cancer-driving signal.<\/p>\n
In a phase 3 trial of 500 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who had already received treatment, daraxonrasib nearly doubled overall survival.<\/p>\n
Median survival rose from 6.7 months with standard chemotherapy to 13.2 months with daraxonrasib.<\/p>\n
The drug reduced the risk of death by 60%.<\/p>\n
For this disease, that is not a marginal result.<\/p>\n
It is the kind of change researchers have been chasing for years.<\/p>\n
The drug is taken daily by mouth.<\/p>\n
The most common side effect was skin rash, affecting more than 86% of patients.<\/p>\n
Mouth sores, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting were also common.<\/p>\n
Even so, patients taking daraxonrasib were less likely to stop treatment because of severe side effects than those receiving chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
They also reported better quality of life and less pain.<\/p>\n
The next step is regulatory review.<\/p>\n
If approved, daraxonrasib could mark a shift towards more precise treatment for pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n
It will not make the disease easy to treat.<\/p>\n
Resistance may still develop, and combinations with other therapies will probably be needed.<\/p>\n
But it shows that one of pancreatic cancer\u2019s most important targets is no longer out of reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A phase 3 trial found daraxonrasib nearly doubled overall survival in previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer.The drug targets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-555644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}