Medical oncologist for blood cancer Prof Chris Jackson attended the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago over the past week.
He was there as a representative on the board of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).
One of the highlights of the meeting’s sessions was the announcement of recent tests results for daraxonrasib, a drug focused on pancreatic cancer, which suggested a breakthrough for one of the deadliest cancer types.
In the trial of 500 patients, all of whom had pancreatic cancer that had spread, the pill doubled survival time, with fewer side effects compared with chemotherapy.
Patients who took the drug lived substantially longer, for an average of 13.2 months, compared with 6.6 to 6.7 months for patients who had chemotherapy, the trial found.
As the trial met all primary and key secondary endpoints, including progression-free survival and overall survival, it intended to include this data in a future new drug application submission to the US Food and Drug Administration and other global regulatory authorities, company Revolution Medicines said in a statement.
‘‘The headline provided to the financial regulator is that duration of survival is doubled with this new drug, which is the largest-ever improvement with any drug in pancreas cancer,’’ Prof Jackson said.
‘‘It was the major talking point at the cancer conference this weekend. [Pancreatic cancer] is the most common cancer that is being discussed in that session, and this is the largest breakthrough in pancreatic cancer, well, ever.’’
Louise Davie Charitable Trust founding trustee Steve Davie said news of the successful trial would be ‘‘brilliant and encouraging’’ for those with pancreatic cancer.
‘‘What it means is that it grants extra quality of life, which is wonderful news for those affected by such a horrible disease.
‘‘Pancreatic cancer at this stage is still a death sentence, but any extra life, if it’s months or even years, is always an encouraging way forward.’’
The trust was ‘‘solely focused’’ on finding the ‘‘earliest diagnostic marker’’ for pancreatic cancer.
‘‘By the time pancreatic cancer is usually detected, it’s often too late,’’ Mr Davie said.
‘‘Our goal, through our research, is to find an ambulance at the top of the cliff for this disease.’’
Mr Davie said Prof Jackson was part of a team of five University of Otago researchers with the trust, which was also collaborating with international researchers on the subject.
The New England Journal of Medicine, which published the daraxonrasib test results, said pancreatic cancer was ‘‘one of the most challenging and lethal cancers’’.
‘‘In the context of second-line treatment, cytotoxic chemotherapy is associated with a low incidence of response, short median progression-free survival and a median overall survival of only six to seven months.
‘‘Treatment with daraxonrasib resulted in a significantly longer time to deterioration with respect to both pain — a clinically relevant symptom in patients with pancreatic cancer — and global health status–quality of life than chemotherapy. These patient-reported benefits complement the improvements in overall survival and progression-free survival observed with daraxonrasib.’’
Mr Davie said he was nonetheless keeping a watching brief on the development of daraxonrasib, and in particular when it might be available in New Zealand in some form.
