Why everyone is so excited about the new treatment for pancreatic cancer

A new treatment for pancreatic cancer, daraxonrasib, is showing incredible promise when it comes to increasing survival rates and offering oncologists and cancer treatment teams a new tool in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer specialist Jesse Clanton, MD, spoke with us about daraxonrasib and why its development is so exciting for doctors and patients alike.

Secretive and hard to spot: Pancreatic cancer is a stubborn challenge to treat

“Pancreatic cancer, where cancer cells begin to grow within the pancreas just behind the lower part of the stomach, has a well-earned reputation as a difficult cancer to treat,” said Dr. Clanton. “One major reason for that is we don’t have an effective screening test for it, so it’s very rare for it to be detected early.”

Unlike breast cancer or colon cancer, which both have existing screening options where evidence of cancer growth can potentially be found very early, there is no routine screening test that can reliably pick up on early pancreatic cancer development. As a result, many patients don’t get diagnosed until the cancer has advanced, symptoms are uncomfortable or painful and treatment options become more limited. Available treatments may only add small improvements in survival rates.

For years, researchers, patients and physicians have been hoping for more effective treatments that could make a real difference. When Brian M. Wolpin, MD, director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, presented the research on daraxonrasib at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, the room erupted not just in applause, but in a standing ovation.

How does the new pill for pancreatic cancer change or affect the usual treatment plan?

“The new pancreatic cancer medication, daraxonrasib, is currently FDA approved for metastatic pancreatic cancer, or pancreatic cancer that has spread to other organs,” said Dr. Clanton. “Most patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer have limited treatment options and a poor prognosis. This new therapy is exciting because it offers a targeted treatment option for some patients and has shown the potential to improve outcomes beyond what we have seen in the past.”

More than 90% of pancreatic tumors are driven by spontaneous gene mutation, taking a protein that drives cell growth and forcing it to be always “on” and active. Chemotherapy, one of the standard treatments for pancreatic cancer, works to inhibit the growth of cells, while targeted cancer drugs, called small molecule inhibitors, are made to attach to the proteins the tumor needs to survive and grow. Due to a quirk of how the pancreatic proteins are formed, these drugs weren’t able to work well on pancreatic tumors.

That’s where daraxonrasib changes the game.

Daraxonrasib ties the protein in question to another, blocking the always-active protein from continuing to drive more cell growth. Think of it as a kind of clamp.

Daraxonrasib is FDA-approved

The FDA recently approved the use of daraxonrasib, which may also be found under its brand name, Rasonque, for treating pancreatic cancer and it’s already being prescribed to some patients even now. If you are fighting pancreatic cancer, speak with your doctor about this form of treatment and how it might benefit you.

Looking ahead to a brighter future for pancreatic cancer treatment

“I am incredibly excited by the development of daraxonrasib,” said Dr. Clanton. “New cancer treatments are typically first approved for patients with advanced disease, and then researchers study whether they can help patients in other situations, such as before or after surgery.”

While Dr. Clanton doesn’t expect this new drug to cure pancreatic cancer by itself, he’s hopeful that future studies will show it to be useful during earlier stages of treatment.

“If it can help shrink tumors before surgery or make more patients eligible for surgical treatment, it could significantly improve outcomes and potentially help more patients achieve long-term survival, or even a cure.”