This New Drug Nearly Doubled Survival Time For Pancreatic Cancer Patients
Key takeaways
- Author: Sela Breen June 08, 2026Assistant Health Editor By Sela Breen Assistant Health Editor Sela Breen is the Assistant Health Editor at mindbodygreen.
- The KRAS protein had no obvious place for a drug molecule to latch onto, so nothing could disable it.
- Now, a drug called daraxonrasib may have finally made headway on treating this mutation.
Why this matters: practical guidance grounded in recent research or expert insight.
Author: Sela Breen June 08, 2026Assistant Health Editor By Sela Breen Assistant Health Editor Sela Breen is the Assistant Health Editor at mindbodygreen. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied journalism, international studies, and theatre.Image by Sean Locke / Stocksy June 08, 2026For nearly four decades, cancer researchers faced a persistent problem. They knew that a mutation in a gene called KRAS was driving some of the deadliest tumors for pancreatic, lung, and colorectal cancers, but every attempt to build a drug that could block it came up short.
The KRAS protein had no obvious place for a drug molecule to latch onto, so nothing could disable it. Scientists started calling it "undruggable," not as a permanent verdict, but as an honest acknowledgment of how difficult the problem was.
Now, a drug called daraxonrasib may have finally made headway on treating this mutation. When the results from a phase 3 clinical trial were presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting at the end of May, the audience stood up to applaud. The drug represents a meaningful step forward in pancreatic cancer treatment, and brings hope that doctors and patients haven't had in years.