New drug nearly doubles survival for advanced pancreatic cancer patients

Daraxonrasib gave patients with advanced pancreatic cancer a survival gain that has rarely been seen in this disease: median overall survival rose to 13.2 months, compared with 6.7 months for standard intravenous chemotherapy. The experimental oral RAS inhibitor from Revolution Medicines produced a hazard ratio of 0.40 in the Phase 3 RASolute 302 trial, a result that points to a deep reduction in the risk of death for a group of patients with very limited options.

The study focused on previously treated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the form of pancreatic cancer that has already spread beyond the pancreas. That matters because the benefit does not yet extend to all pancreatic cancer patients, but to people whose disease has advanced after earlier treatment. The company said the trial also met key progression-free survival endpoints and that the drug was generally well tolerated, with no new safety signals.

Researchers presented the findings on May 31, 2026, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, and the results were published at the same time in the New England Journal of Medicine. Revolution Medicines said it intends to submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration and other regulators in a future New Drug Application. On May 1, the FDA authorized an expanded access program, allowing some previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer patients to receive daraxonrasib outside clinical trials while formal review continues.

The signal is especially important in a cancer long defined by late diagnosis and limited progress. Pancreatic cancer is often found only after it has already spread, about 60,000 people in the United States are diagnosed each year, and only about 3% of patients with metastatic disease are alive five years later. More than 90% of pancreatic cancers are driven by KRAS or RAS-family mutations, which is why a targeted RAS inhibitor has drawn so much attention from oncologists searching for a treatment that attacks the biology of the disease rather than only slowing its symptoms.

The trial enrolled 500 patients across North America, Europe and Asia, making it the kind of multinational Phase 3 evidence regulators look for before a broader verdict. Even so, daraxonrasib remains an investigational drug, and the result is a major step rather than a cure. For patients facing metastatic pancreatic cancer, though, a near-doubling of median survival marks one of the clearest advances the field has seen in years.