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For decades RAS was called 'undruggable'. A new class of medicines is changing that. Here is what patients and families should know.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to treat. It is often diagnosed late, spreads quickly and responds poorly to many therapies. That is why the US Food and Drug Administration's approval of daraxonrasib on 26 August 2026 drew so much attention from doctors and patient groups.
Medical disclaimer: This article is for general information only. Treatment decisions should always be made with a qualified oncologist. Availability and approval of medicines vary by country.
The FDA described it as a first-in-class targeted therapy for this disease.
RAS is a family of proteins (KRAS, NRAS and HRAS) that act like on/off switches for cell growth. When a RAS gene is mutated, the switch can get stuck in the "on" position, driving uncontrolled growth.
For about 40 years, researchers struggled to design drugs against RAS because:
The first breakthrough came with KRAS G12C inhibitors such as sotorasib, approved for certain lung cancers in 2021. But G12C mutations are rare in pancreatic cancer.
Daraxonrasib is designed to target multiple forms of active RAS, rather than a single mutation. The FDA described RAS as "a key driver of tumor growth in most patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma." This broader approach means it could help a larger share of patients.
In a randomised, open-label, multicentre trial of about 500 participants, the FDA reported that daraxonrasib:
That is roughly a doubling of median survival in a setting where options have been very limited.
Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all major cancers. A therapy that targets the disease's core driver marks a scientific shift from "one-size-fits-all" chemotherapy toward precision oncology for pancreatic cancer.
No. It extended median survival in the trial but is not a cure.
Approval in India would require review by Indian regulators. Patients should consult their oncologist about current options.
In the US, adults with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma who have had prior systemic therapy or cannot receive multi-drug chemotherapy.
An approach that selects treatments based on the genetic and molecular features of a person's cancer.
Daraxonrasib shows that a target once considered impossible can be drugged. For patients with pancreatic cancer, it adds a meaningful new option — and for cancer research, it opens a path that may extend to other RAS-driven cancers.
Sources: US Food and Drug Administration press announcement (26 August 2026); Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
