{"id":3965,"date":"2026-07-07T13:09:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T13:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3965"},"modified":"2026-07-07T13:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T13:09:49","slug":"pancreatic-cancer-breakthrough-has-big-implications-for-early-detection-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3965","title":{"rendered":"Pancreatic cancer breakthrough has big implications for early detection effort"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Raj Aji has been visiting San Diego regularly since last summer, and not for the weather. The retired Bay Area attorney flies south to keep appointments at Moores Cancer Center in La Jolla, getting the blood tests, medical imaging and other care required to remain in a clinical trial of Daraxonrasib, the pancreatic cancer drug so effective that its inventors received a standing ovation at the world\u2019s largest oncology conference in Chicago last month.<\/p>\n

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The applause came for the medication\u2019s ability to block the spread of the deadly disease, long considered untreatable with drugs.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Now, patients are traveling to receive what once seemed impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aji, first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2024 after feeling some unexpected pain in his abdomen, is among a growing group of patients who have experienced the power of this new medication. Recently published trial results document a doubling of median survival rates for those with advanced metastatic disease when compared with chemotherapy alone.<\/p>\n

When his cancer returned in 2025, having spread to his liver, after initial surgery in 2024, Aji said that his oncologist at UC San Francisco Health was well aware of the promise of this new drug. While his personal chemotherapy history prevented him from enrolling in a trial near his home, a different trial type that he did qualify for was available at nearly two dozen cancer centers across the nation. Enrollment initially meant traveling to Utah, but not long after, Moores Cancer Center added the trial, and he transferred his care to San Diego.<\/p>\n

While nobody feels lucky after receiving a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, this new drug is making patients with stage 4 diagnoses feel fortunate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m lucky that I had it when this drug has been available,\u201d Aji said. \u201cI can\u2019t help but think back to the number of people before me who didn\u2019t have this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And this moment, notes Dr. Diane Simeone, director of Moores Cancer Center, is just the beginning. After all, clinical trials focus on the sickest patients first. But there could potentially be a much greater win available if Daraxonrasib, and similar \u201cRAS\u201d inhibitors now in drug development pipelines, were given to pancreatic patients early on in the course of disease before cancer cells spread from the pancreas to other parts of the body.<\/p>\n

Simeone is in a particularly prime position to understand how a push toward early detection will dovetail with this new breakthrough in medication.<\/p>\n

Since she arrived from the East Coast in 2024, Simeone has run the world\u2019s largest pancreatic cancer early detection program from San Diego, serving as committee chair and a principal investigator of the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Consortium. Often called PRECEDE, the program is a worldwide network of 65 cancer centers that has been working since 2020 to enroll 20,000 people at risk of developing pancreatic cancer. To date, Simeone said, about 12,000 have already signed up, participating in regular blood and imaging tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these centers are working in harmony, collecting data the same way, and now we\u2019re detecting cancer about every week through screening,\u201d Simeone said.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s what study designers hoped would happen. Spotting cancer in this cohort, one with lots of diagnostic testing already on file, delivers the priceless opportunity to learn what signs and signals appear first when pancreatic cancer develops in the body. Better understanding early symptoms, such as the presence of certain molecules called biomarkers, is particularly important with pancreatic cancer, as it often progresses relatively silently until it has spread throughout the body, leading to a very low survival rate after detection.<\/p>\n

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Already, studying the test results of PRECEDE participants who have developed pancreatic cancer while enrolled in the study has suggested better tests to detect the disease earlier, allowing intervention before it spreads. Today, Simeone said, about 75% of cases in the PRECEDE cohort are found in the first stage of disease development. And, there are reasons to think that new tools, especially those that use artificial intelligence programs to help analyze medical imaging, can drive the early detection rate even higher.<\/p>\n

The astounding results delivered by Daraxonrasib, and likely by a new crop of medications now in development pipelines of pharma companies that work in a similar fashion, suddenly provide a significant opportunity to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a beehive of activity around this,\u201d Simeone said. \u201cWe\u2019re now starting to have conversations about what kinds of interception studies are possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not difficult to imagine using RAS inhibitors very early on to prevent spread even if it is likely that tumor-removal surgery, called resection, should provide a cure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you find, say, a one-centimeter pancreas cancer, we resect it, and you may want to do a belt-and-suspenders approach, treating for, let\u2019s say, three months with a RAS inhibitor,\u201d Simeone said.<\/p>\n

Of course, such interception studies would work only with those already enrolled in PRECEDE. Many are still diagnosed only after significant disease progression. For these patients, access to Daraxonrasib is an urgent priority. Here, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already taken action, approving the drug made by Revolution Medicines of Redwood City for expanded access. Patients with previously treated pancreatic cancer of the type that the drug combats can request doses through their oncologists if they do not qualify for any of the clinical trials now underway.<\/p>\n

Those like Aji, the Moores patient commuting from the Bay Area to participate in a Daraxonrasib trial, are not promised forever. As with any drug, results will vary; while median survival for pancreatic cancer that has spread doubles, individual results may deliver longer or shorter duration.<\/p>\n

For his part, Aji, 64, who has now been taking Daraxonrasib for more than a year, says he is thankful for the time that has already been provided, and especially for the ability to hold the cancer in check without the nasty side effects of chemotherapy, which he stopped taking.<\/p>\n

While the median survival benefit may move from six months to 13 months, he said he has met pancreatic cancer patients who have now survived for 26 months, double the median result.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that the data also shows that, at some point, people start developing resistance, but it does provide options for patients like me,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are other treatments coming, and it opens the door, potentially, to those other treatments in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The true benefit, he added, has been a sharpening of life\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get rid of the stuff that is just adding fluff to your life,\u201d Aji said. \u201cYou do things which are really important to you, and it changes your attitude about, you know, what really is going to matter and what isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A growing number of people with stage 4 cancer are experiencing the power of this new medication. “It does provide options for patients like me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nPancreatic cancer breakthrough has big implications for early detection effort - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3965\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pancreatic cancer breakthrough has big implications for early detection effort - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A growing number of people with stage 4 cancer are experiencing the power of this new medication. 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