A Philadelphia police officer who spent 18 years on the force is now in a different kind of fight, and a newly approved cancer drug is giving her reason to keep going.
April Holmes, 51, was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Chemotherapy, the traditional treatment, didn’t work and made her sick, she told CBS News Philadelphia. So she turned to an experimental drug called daraxonrasib, now FDA-approved, at Main Line Health.
“It didn’t click until she actually said that I have Stage 4 pancreatic cancer,” Holmes said. “So immediately, of course, I broke down.”
In clinical trials, the drug doubled survival time from six to 13 months. It is the first treatment to extend the lives of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and is being called one of the most important advances in a decade.
“It works by stopping a critical way in which pancreas cancer grows and spreads,” Main Line Health Dr. Hannah Thomas said. “We didn’t think we’d be able to target this mutation with medication.”
Holmes said she hasn’t had any bad side effects. She’s looking forward to the arrival of a grandchild and hoping the drug will allow her to travel with her husband.
“It’s a miracle,” Holmes said. “It gives me hope.”