A new drug for pancreas cancer may be a game changer, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Daraxonrasib is the name of a drug for pancreas cancer that almost doubled survival for people with the disease in a clinical trial. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, says while the drug is going through the FDA’s approval process there are ways for people with pancreas cancer to access treatment.

Nelson: Looks as if the FDA has approved a program of expanded access, called daraxonrasib. Usually in the expanded access program you're still collecting information on the people that take the drug particularly around safety. It does enhance the knowledge base of the FDA will ultimately use I think the idea that you can target RAS generally is a great advance. It's not going to be the answer but it is going to be something that will be an incredible tool to use when we ultimately cure the disease.    :27

RAS is one gene known to be involved with many cancers that had previously been thought to be untargetable. Daraxonrasib does target this gene and opens the door to many more drugs that will also work on RAS pathways, some of which are already in trials, Nelson says. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.