New pill doubles survival time for pancreatic cancer patients, trial finds

A new pill helped to double the survival time for patients with an advanced and aggressive form of pancreatic cancer when compared to chemotherapy, a trial has found.

The drug called daraxonrasib works by locking onto the mutated KRAS gene, which is found in more than 90% of pancreatic tumours.

The gene continuously signals cancer cells to grow, but the drug shuts this off, thereby stopping tumours from spreading.

Pancreatic Cancer UK said new treatments targeting the gene variant are "some of the most exciting developments" in a very long time, and called for clinical trials in the UK.

The trial, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, compared 500 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer which had spread to other organs.

The patients, based in North America, Europe and Asia, had previously received treatment and were still able to carry out most of their daily activities.

Some 248 of them were given darazonrasib, while the other 252 received chemotherapy. Most of them had tumours with specific mutations of the KRAS gene.

Researchers found that the median survival time for patients on daraxonrasib was 13.2 months compared to 6.6 months for those on chemotherapy.

The median time without cancer progression was similar in both groups, at 7.3 months for those on daraxonrasib and 7.2 months for chemotherapy patients.

The study also found that daraxonrasib resulted in fewer serious side effects, with 43.6% of patients on the drug experiencing severe side effects, compared to 57.5% of those receiving chemotherapy.

Just 1.2% of people in the daraxonrasib group stopped treatment because of side effects compared to 11.2% of the chemotherapy group.

Anna Jewell, director of services, research and innovation at Pancreatic Cancer UK, hailed darazonrasib as one of the "most exciting developments" in pancreatic cancer treatment, as patients were given "months more precious time with their loved ones".

"Crucially, these results suggest that daraxonrasib is able to keep the cancer under control for longer," Ms Jewell said.

"There are now several KRAS inhibitor drugs in clinical trials around the world, which are showing promising results.

"We now need to ensure that these clinical trials are available in the UK, and that crucially these new treatment types are fast-tracked for approval - as recognised in the National Cancer Plan."

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There are around 11,500 cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed in the UK each year and around 10,200 deaths.

Half of them die within just three months of their diagnosis, according to Ms Jewell.

(c) Sky News 2026: New pill doubles survival time for pancreatic cancer patients, trial finds