A groundbreaking experimental treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer has shown remarkable results in extending patient survival, though it comes with a significant rate of side effects that doctors say are largely treatable, according to new research published Wednesday.
The medication, called daraxonrasib and developed by Revolution Medicines, represents what medical experts believe could establish a new treatment standard for patients battling metastatic pancreatic cancer who have already undergone previous therapies.
Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most lethal cancer diagnoses worldwide, with approximately only 13% of patients surviving five years after diagnosis, making it among the deadliest cancer types.
The latest research findings provide support for an ongoing advanced clinical trial that compares daraxonrasib against conventional second-round chemotherapy treatments for patients whose pancreatic cancer has metastasized throughout their bodies.
During the initial human trial involving 168 patients with previously treated pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma who took daraxonrasib, 96% experienced treatment-related adverse reactions of varying severity, while 30% faced serious or life-threatening complications.
Patients most frequently reported experiencing skin rashes, mouth inflammation, nausea, and diarrhea as side effects from the treatment.
“Almost all patients do experience some adverse effects, with the most common being a rash that occurs in the majority of patients,” said senior researcher Dr. David Hong of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “But those effects are manageable in most patients, and the benefits significantly outweigh those adverse effects.”
Current results from the larger ongoing trial with 500 participants show patients taking daraxonrasib lived a median of 13.2 months compared to 6.7 months for those receiving standard chemotherapy, Revolution announced in April.
Traditional treatment approaches for previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer typically result in serious or life-threatening complications and provide median survival periods of just 5 to 7 months, researchers noted in their report published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Both clinical trials focused on patients carrying specific mutations in KRAS tumor genes, which enable cancer cells to reproduce and spread. While medications targeting these genes already exist for lung and colorectal cancer treatment, they work against a different RAS mutation that rarely appears in pancreatic cancer cases.
Daraxonrasib, administered as a daily oral medication, specifically targets the RAS mutations present in 90% of pancreatic cancer diagnoses.
“Although much work remains to be done, it genuinely feels like a new day is dawning for pancreatic cancer treatment, with daraxonrasib potentially serving as the first of a set of new medicines that broadly target mutant RAS and allow us to help patients with pancreatic cancers in new ways,” study leader Dr. Brian Wolpin of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted early access authorization for daraxonrasib, enabling patients to receive the experimental therapy outside of clinical trials before official approval.
