Daraxonrasib: After new drug’s ‘unprecedented’ results for pancreatic cancer, doctors look at other uses

Every single patient with advanced pancreatic cancer who walked into Dr. Zev Wainberg’s office told him they would rather take an experimental medication than endure another round of chemotherapy. 

Wainberg, co-director of UCLA Health’s GI Oncology Program, was leading a clinical trial of a new drug called daraxonrasib. All the study participants previously had chemotherapy that was starting to fail. 

“Statistically, I knew only half of them get the pill, and we don’t get to choose,” Wainberg said. “I put a lot of patients on the chemo arm, and none of them are alive anymore.” 

“It’s one of the most emotional studies I’ve ever been a part of,” he said.

Enthusiasm around daraxonrasib is reaching a fever pitch. In the Phase 3 trial of 500 patients, the drug was shown to double the survival time of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, a notoriously deadly cancer: 13.2 months, on average, compared to 6.7 months for people who got chemo. On Sunday, Wainberg and his colleagues presented those results at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago. The full study was simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

…“Pancreas cancer may be the first for this drug, but there will be others,” said Dr. Brian Wolpin, who also led research on daraxonrasib and directs the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “Now the floodgates open.” 

The Food and Drug Administration has already put the drug on a fast track toward approval for pancreatic cancer, and earlier this month said it would permit Revolution Medicines to give it to patients outside of clinical trials in an expanded access program. 

Dr. Mark Goldsmith, chief executive officer for Revolution Medicines, declined to provide a timeline for when the company will file for FDA approval. “Our professionals are working literally 24/7 to get this material prepared as quickly as possible,” he said. 

Shrinking tumors

Most pancreatic cancers are diagnosed in later stages of the disease, when surgery isn’t an option. 

“Even with our best chemotherapies, the average benefit is around 6 months, sometimes as little as weeks or months,” said Dr. Sameek Roychowdhury, a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. “It’s barely enough time for families to grasp the situation.” 

Just 3% of patients diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer are alive five years later, according to the American Cancer Society.

Debby Orcutt, 71, was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in April 2024. The cancer had already spread to her liver. Prior to her diagnosis, her only symptom had been a nagging pain in her lower left abdomen that got worse at night. 

When chemotherapy started failing Orcutt, she enrolled in the clinical trial for daraxonrasib — and was one of the participants who actually got the drug. 

Since she began taking the pill in January 2025, the spot on her liver has vanished. And the tumor on her pancreas has shrunk by 80%, according to her oncologist at Dana-Farber. 

“I feel great every single day,” said Orcutt, of Spencer, Massachusetts. “I do not dwell on the fact that I have pancreatic cancer.”

What is daraxonrasib and how does it work?

Daraxonrasib targets a mutation in a gene called KRAS, which works like an on/off switch controlling how cells grow in the body. The mutation, which is found in more than 90% of pancreatic cancers, causes the switch to get stuck in an “on” position, allowing cancer cells to grow wildly out of control. 

Scientists have known for years that if they could target the KRAS mutation, they could wrench that switch from its “on” position. 

 …Daraxonrasib is that first drug. It works by pairing up with a protein called cyclophilin A inside cells, acting like a “molecular glue,” Wolpin said, glomming onto the mutated protein. 

Studies for similar drugs in the pipeline are underway. Daraxonrasib is not a cure for cancer; tumors eventually figure out a way to grow again. Ideally, oncologists want an arsenal of drugs like it in line to give to patients when they develop resistance.

Revolution Medicines’ Goldsmith said the company has three other such drugs, called RAS inhibitors, in clinical trials, with a fourth due to start later this year. 

…Right now, chemotherapy is still recommended as a first-line treatment for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Other research is underway, Wolpin said, to see whether those patients should get the drug first.

By all accounts, daraxonrasib is much less toxic compared to chemo. Some patients reported vomiting and diarrhea, as well as sores in the mouth and throat. Some developed a blistering rash that looked like a bad sunburn. Former Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who got the drug in a clinical trial, described the rash as “nuclear” on a New York Times podcast in April…

Nick Sortor:

Anti-ICE rioters are now FULLY KETTLED between TWO WALLS of concrete and two walls of police here in Newark

A MASS ARREST bus has just rolled up.

And has prepared to take rioters into custody.

There is literally NO ESCAPE for them out here!

Homeland Security:

LAW AND ORDER.