The announcement of a drug that extends the survival rate for patients with late-stage pancreatic cancer has drawn global applause.
The oral cancer drug from Revolution Medicines is called Daraxonrasib. Phase 3 trials for patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer show dramatic promise.
Dr. Vaibhav Sahai, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine with Michigan Health, and his team participated in clinical trials for the drug, which attaches to a molecule that shuts down the ability of a particular protein to mutate.
“We saw early on how our patients were just responding so dramatically with this pill. So, we knew from day one that this is an active, active drug.”
In clinical trials Sahai said his patients survived a median of 13.2 months on the drug, versus 6.6 months on chemotherapy.
“The reason why this is dramatically important is because first-line chemotherapy is supposed to be the most effective form of therapy after which resistance develops and that resistance can be multi-drug resistance.”
The drug targets the mutations of a particular protein that are the driving force for over 90 % of pancreatic cancers. Patients also experienced fewer side effects than people on chemotherapy.
Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S. for men and women.
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