New pill doubles survival for deadly pancreatic cancer in trial

A once-daily pill nearly doubled survival for patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the deadliest common form of pancreatic cancer. That does not make the disease curable, and it does not mean the drug is ready for every patient, but it does mark a sharp advance in a setting where chemotherapy has long produced only modest gains.

In the Phase 3 RASolute 302 trial, daraxonrasib, an oral RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibitor from Revolution Medicines, produced a median overall survival of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months with standard intravenous chemotherapy. The hazard ratio of 0.40 translates to roughly a 60% lower risk of death during the study period, and the trial met all primary and key secondary endpoints, including progression-free survival and overall survival.

The patients enrolled had previously treated metastatic disease, the group most directly in line for any early use of the drug if regulators eventually clear it. Revolution Medicines said the pill was generally well tolerated, with no new safety signals, and that patients reported delayed worsening of cancer-related pain, overall global health status and quality of life. The company did not release a detailed side-effect table in the notes provided, but the overall message was that the safety profile looked manageable.

The results were presented in plenary session LBA5 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago on May 31, 2026, and were published the same day in The New England Journal of Medicine. Revolution Medicines said it plans to submit the data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulators in a future New Drug Application. The FDA had already granted permission on May 1, 2026, for an expanded access program for previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer patients.

The finding carries unusual weight because more than 90% of pancreatic tumors are driven by RAS proteins or KRAS alterations, yet the field has rarely had a drug that directly hit that biology in a large randomized trial. Researchers said this was the first RAS inhibitor evaluated in that kind of study for pancreatic cancer, making the result a potential turning point rather than just another incremental chemotherapy update.

The broader stakes are severe. Pancreatic cancer has a five-year relative survival rate of about 13.7%, and the American Cancer Society projects 67,530 new U.S. cases and 52,740 deaths in 2026. Brian M. Wolpin of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute called the data a clear and highly meaningful step forward, while Eileen O’Reilly of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said the findings may help build targeted therapy into a major backbone of pancreatic-cancer treatment. For now, the question is not whether the result matters. It is how quickly regulators, oncologists and hospitals can turn a striking trial result into a new standard of care.