For decades, a pancreatic cancer diagnosis at an advanced stage was effectively a death sentence. The five-year survival rate for metastatic pancreatic cancer — the form most patients have when diagnosed, because the cancer causes no early symptoms — sits below 3%. Chemotherapy offered modest survival extensions measured in weeks or a few months. Immunotherapy largely failed. The cancer was driven by a mutated gene called KRAS, which researchers called "undruggable" because they could not find a way to target it with medication.

That era may now be ending. A landmark Phase 3 clinical trial of a new drug called daraxonrasib, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in June 2026, found that patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who received daraxonrasib lived a median of 13.2 months — compared to 6.7 months for those who received standard chemotherapy. That is not an incremental improvement. It is a near-doubling of survival time in one of medicine's most lethal diseases, and it represents the most significant advance in pancreatic cancer treatment in decades. Researchers at the meeting responded with a rare standing ovation.

The KRAS Gene: Why This Cancer Was Considered Untreatable — Until Now

About 90 to 95 percent of pancreatic cancers harbor a mutation in the KRAS gene. KRAS acts as a molecular on-switch for cancer cell growth — when it is stuck in the "on" position due to mutation, cancer cells proliferate without control. For 40 years, researchers tried and failed to design drugs that could turn KRAS off. The protein it produces lacks the structural features that most targeted cancer drugs need to bind to it. Scientists called it "undruggable."

Daraxonrasib belongs to a new generation of KRAS inhibitors that found a creative solution to this problem: instead of targeting KRAS directly in its active state, it traps the protein in an inactive form, preventing it from being turned on by the cell's normal signaling machinery. The cancer research team at ScienceDaily reported that the drug targets the KRAS mutation found in most pancreatic cancers — making it potentially applicable not just to the patients in the trial but to the vast majority of people diagnosed with this disease going forward.

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Why Dallas and UT Southwestern Are Positioned to Lead This Revolution

UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas is home to one of the world's most advanced KRAS research programs. The Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center — a nationally designated cancer center by the National Cancer Institute — has been involved in KRAS-targeted research for years, and several of its oncology and biochemistry researchers have contributed to the foundational science that made drugs like daraxonrasib possible.

Dallas County has more than 3,000 new pancreatic cancer diagnoses each year across the DFW metropolitan area. For patients at UT Southwestern, Baylor Scott & White, and Texas Health Resources who are currently undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer — or for family members of those recently diagnosed — the daraxonrasib data represents a reason for genuine hope that did not exist one year ago. Patients should ask their oncologist about clinical trial eligibility for daraxonrasib and other KRAS-targeting agents, as access through trials may be available now, even ahead of FDA approval. The National Cancer Institute's cancer trial finder lists open enrollment studies by diagnosis and location.