Experimental pill nearly doubles survival time for people with advanced pancreatic cancer. ‘I actually started crying’
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A novel pill helped people with advanced pancreatic cancer live longer, researchers reported Sunday, raising hopes of long-needed better treatments for one of the deadliest types of cancer.
Key facts
Those taking daraxonrasib lived for a median of 13.2 months compared with 6.7 months for chemotherapy recipients
The American Cancer Society estimates about 67,000 new cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year and more than 52,000 people will die from the disease
Having treated pancreatic cancer for 16 years, I started crying” when first seeing the study results, Dr
Ben Sasse described on “60 Minutes” how he’s had less pain while taking it
Summary
“While not curing the cancer, it is a large step forward,” said Dr. Zev Wainberg, of the University of California, Los Angeles, who helped lead the study. The drug is called daraxonrasib and it blocks a mutated protein that fuels tumor growth in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases, a target that had eluded treatment for decades. The daily pills nearly doubled survival time, with fewer severe side effects, in a study that randomly assigned the experimental drug or more chemotherapy to 500 patients whose metastatic, or spreading, cancer had quit responding to prior treatment. Those taking daraxonrasib lived for a median of 13.2 months compared with 6.7 months for chemotherapy recipients.