STAT+: FDA approves new pancreatic cancer drug expected to usher in new era of treatment

On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved a groundbreaking treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer, a biotech company Revolution Medicines' drug designed to target a genetic cause of the aggressive and lethal malignancy. The drug, named daraxonib and marketed under the brand name Rasonque, marks the first therapeutic approach that addresses the genetic roots of this insidious disease.

Supported by a practice-changing clinical trial, the FDA's approval was driven by promising results. Patients suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer who received Rasonque as a second-line treatment experienced a median overall survival of 13.2 months. This is a stark contrast to the 6.7 months observed in patients who received standard chemotherapy.

Andrew Ko, a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers at the University of California, San Francisco, hailed the approval as a transformative development in the field of pancreatic cancer treatment. "It will be transformative in the way we treat pancreas cancer," Ko stated, expressing gratitude for the advance in care for pancreatic cancer patients.