Daily pill doubles survival time for pancreatic cancer patients in trial
A new daily pill that has doubled survival time for patients with pancreatic cancer was presented at the ASCO 2026 annual meeting in Chicago, marking a potentially life-saving advance in one of the most deadly cancers. Daraxonrasib, a KRAS-targeted inhibitor developed by Revolution Medicines, increased median survival from 4.4 months to 8.6 months in a phase 3 trial in patients with advanced disease.
According to BBC Health correspondent Smitha Mundasad, the trial is among the largest randomised treatment studies ever conducted for pancreatic cancer, enrolling 462 patients. Daraxonrasib targets patients carrying KRAS G12 mutations, which are present in approximately 90 percent of pancreatic cancer cases.
The trial's principal investigator, Dr Shubham Pant of MD Anderson Cancer Center, told the BBC that 'pancreatic cancer is a disease with a five-year survival rate of 13 percent; these results are genuine progress in the treatment landscape.' Pant noted that approximately 41 percent of patients responded objectively to treatment, with tumours shrinking.
The side-effect profile observed in the trial is generally manageable. Skin rash was seen in 22 percent of patients, and mild to moderate diarrhoea in 18 percent. Only 4 percent of patients discontinued treatment due to serious adverse events. That figure represents a meaningful improvement over existing chemotherapy regimens.
Diana Jupp, CEO of Pancreatic Cancer UK, commented that 'we have not seen treatment progress on this scale for this disease for more than a decade.' Jupp noted that around 10,500 new pancreatic cancer cases are diagnosed in the United Kingdom each year, with most patients being diagnosed at an advanced stage.
Daraxonrasib has received priority review status from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with approval potentially completed in autumn 2026. In the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has announced it will evaluate the treatment for NHS use. NICE evaluation committee chair Dr Sam Roberts said 'we will base our access decisions on clinical data and cost-effectiveness analysis.'
The annual cost of the treatment has not yet been determined, but Revolution Medicines CEO Mark Goldsmith said at his presentation at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference that the price would be 'proportional to clinical benefit.' Industry analysis firm Evercore ISI estimates the market opportunity for daraxonrasib at 2 to 3 billion dollars annually.
Responses from the clinical research community have been generally positive but cautious. Dr Eileen O'Reilly of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center told the BBC that 'the KRAS-targeting approach has shown great promise in recent years, but we also need second-generation drugs against resistance.' O'Reilly stressed that the current trial alone is not sufficient and that continuous monitoring is needed.
The trial data also points to how biomarker-based treatment regimens may reshape the pancreatic cancer ecosystem. An analysis published by STAT News at the ASCO Congress assessed that KRAS-directed therapies could change the first-line standard of care for pancreatic cancer over the next five years. The pancreatic cancer treatment market is currently around 8 billion dollars per year.
According to data from the Turkish Ministry of Health, around 3,500 pancreatic cancer cases are diagnosed in Turkey each year. Professor Saadettin Kılıçkap of Hacettepe University's Department of Medical Oncology said 'the access timeline of KRAS-targeted agents in our country must also be monitored regularly.' When the treatment could be brought into reimbursement coverage within the Turkish healthcare system remains unclear. This article does not constitute personal medical advice; patients should consult their own oncologists about treatment options.