“Some 480 early-phase and 85 late-phase clinical trials for advanced pancreatic cancer have resulted in five new drug approvals since 2000, according to the American Cancer Society. 

‘Pancreatic cancer has been the graveyard for drug discovery,’ said Dr. Benjamin Weinberg, a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University.

Researchers believe that could change with newer therapies, particularly those that target KRAS. The gene acts as a switch for cellular growth, and KRAS mutations can cause cells to proliferate uncontrollably and become cancerous. Researchers considered KRAS ‘undruggable’ for decades, until a breakthrough in the 2010s cracked open the field.

Two therapies have since been approved for lung and colorectal cancer patients with some KRAS mutations. The drugs, called inhibitors, turn off that growth switch.

At California-based Revolution Medicines, patients are now enrolling in the company’s late-stage trial for pancreatic cancers with mutations including KRAS. In an earlier-stage trial, 27% of pancreatic-cancer patients had a partial or full response, according to the data released so far.

Patients were able to fend off the disease for a median of 8.5 months before it progressed. More than a third of patients harboring KRAS mutations in a category called G12 responded.”

From Wall Street Journal.