The Food and Drug Administration has approved Daraxonrasib, a new targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer developed in part through clinical trials.
Fred Hutch Cancer Center researchers spoke to KIRO 7 shortly after the drug’s approval and said that it truly could be a major advancement in treating one of the deadliest cancers. The drug targets a specific genetic mutation present in approximately 90% of pancreatic cancer patients that fuels tumor growth, according to the researchers at Fred Hutch.
Pancreatic cancer is historically difficult to detect before it spreads, contributing to low survival rates, according to the researchers and literature from the American Cancer Society and other groups that track cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 70,000 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, with roughly 52,000 deaths, and the cancer has a five-year survival rate of 13%.
By blocking the mutation that drives tumor expansion, Daraxonrasib can drastically reduce tumor growth, stunting it and extending patient survival.
Unlike traditional chemotherapy, Daraxonrasib is administered as a daily oral medication. Dr. Sita Kugel, a researcher at Fred Hutch, detailed the treatment regimen. “The really unique and wonderful thing about this is it’s three pills a day, right?” Kugel said.
“It’s not chemotherapy, and so it becomes a much easier treatment regimen in order to administer and in order to take it is FDA-approved in the second-line metastatic patients, and so it’s a pretty straightforward treatment, ” according to Kugel.
Standard chemotherapy treatments for pancreatic cancer frequently cause severe side effects. Mary Cranny, a pancreatic cancer survivor from Western Washington, is among the 13% of patients who survive the disease.
She spoke about the toll of standard care. “You’re always going in for chemo,” Cranny said. “Sometimes it’s every three weeks, but you have your marginal okay days, but you have mostly terrible, terrible days of fatigue and nauseousness.”
Cranny explained that the low survival rates had previously made offering encouragement to newly diagnosed patients difficult.
“I do talk to a lot of patients, but I don’t offer the hope that I once did,” Cranny said. Following the drug’s approval, she expressed renewed optimism for future patients. “So it was so devastating for me, but so exciting on the other hand; it’s like next year, the patients that I get to talk to will live,” Cranny said.
Medical professionals involved in treating pancreatic cancer have reacted with enthusiasm to the trial results and FDA Approval.
Dr. Eric Collisson, an Oncologist and pancreatic cancer researcher at Fred Hutch, described the drug’s development as a major milestone.
“It’s an inspiring testament to humans working on a hard problem,” Collisson said. “Nurses that take care of this disease, the physicians who take care of this disease are really ecstatic and excited like I’ve never seen them.”
Collisson shared specific instances of positive patient outcomes following treatment with the pill. “I had a patient two weeks ago who had started the drug and was off in Mammoth, Calif. doing her hiking and getting a sunburn, which we tell her not to do,” Collisson said before adding that he would rather her go and get a sunburn instead of being bedridden from chemotherapy.
He also noted another case involving rapid symptom relief. “I had another patient who was coughing and coughing from lung metastases, and she started in a week later,” Collisson said. “I had given her some cough suppressant and the Daraxonrasib that week. She’s like, my cough is better. That cough medicine is really working. And I’m like, I don’t think it was the cough medicine.”
The drug was developed by Revolution Medicines, and several media outlets reported that the cost of the new drug is steep at $39,800 a month before insurance.
Researchers at Fred Hutch are conducting further lab work to understand the drug’s implementation, side effects, and impact on patients.
While the group waits to see how effective it can truly be, they admit they feel a greater sense of hope for treatment than ever before.
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