Study shows new pill has promise in treating pancreatic cancer
May 14, 2026, 2:45 PM
The Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City on Monday, April 24, 2023. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
(Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — A new study is showing evidence that a pill can offer better options than chemotherapy for patients with pancreatic cancer. The University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute was one of the 60 locations that offered a trial of the drug.
Pancreatic cancer is an especially aggressive form of cancer, but doctors are encouraged by the data they are seeing. The study treated some patients with chemotherapy, and others with the drug Daraxonrasib, a pill patients took daily.
Participants who took the pill lived about six months longer than their counterparts who underwent chemotherapy. Doctors report the patients not only lived longer, but their quality of life was improved.
The assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah, Conan Kinsey, said they expect this medicine to be used to treat other forms of cancer which harbor RAS mutations. Other than pancreatic cancer, colorectal, lung, skin and ovarian cancers are also associated with RAS mutations.
Daraxonrasib is expected to be approved by the FDA in the coming months.
