A new drug that doubled survival among patients with advanced pancreatic cancer in a clinical trial offers fresh hope for a disease that remains one of the most difficult cancers to treat, according to Professor Grigoris Tsiotos of the Mayo Clinic and president of the Hellenic Pancreas Institute.
The drug, daraxonrasib, helped patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who had already received previous treatments live a median of 13.2 months, compared with 6.6 months among patients who did not receive it, according to clinical trial results cited by Tsiotos in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA).
Pancreatic cancer accounts for approximately 500,000 new diagnoses worldwide each year and carries low five-year survival rates. Doctors often diagnose the disease at an advanced stage, while treatment options remain particularly limited for patients whose cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
Tsiotos described daraxonrasib as the first drug in many years to demonstrate substantial results against pancreatic cancer, particularly for patients whose disease persists or progresses after established chemotherapy treatments.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug on August 26, 2026, while the relevant committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a positive opinion on October 15, paving the way for European authorisation.
Greek patients have already begun securing early access to the treatment before the European authorisation process concludes. Tsiotos said Greek authorities had approved nine or 10 applications, placing Greece among a small number of European countries offering access at such an early stage.
Clinical trial shows survival benefit
The pivotal multicentre, randomised clinical trial involved patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer whose disease persisted or worsened despite previously approved treatments.
Researchers presented the findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference in Chicago in May 2026 and published the results in the New England Journal of Medicine on May 31, according to Tsiotos.
The study compared 248 patients who received daraxonrasib with 252 patients who did not. The treatment group achieved a median survival of 13.2 months, double the 6.6 months recorded in the comparison group.
Tsiotos emphasised the significance of the findings because the patients had advanced disease and had exhausted their established treatment options.
He also pointed to growing interest among major US cancer centres in investigating whether doctors could administer daraxonrasib earlier in the course of the disease, potentially improving outcomes further.
For patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, surgery generally cannot remove the disease, leaving chemotherapy as the principal treatment option. However, its benefits often last only a few months, making the survival improvement reported with daraxonrasib particularly significant.
How Greek patients can access the treatment
Greek patients may obtain daraxonrasib through an established approval process before the European authorisation procedure concludes.
According to Tsiotos, the patient’s treating oncologist must prepare a comprehensive electronic medical file detailing previous treatments and the patient’s current condition, supported by a recent CT scan.
The oncologist submits the file to the National Organisation for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY). The organisation then forwards it electronically to three oncologists, who assess the case and decide whether to approve the treatment.
Authorities send the approval electronically to the patient’s AMKA social security number. The Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Technology (IFET) then obtains the medicine and supplies it to the patient’s treating oncologist for administration.
Tsiotos said authorities had already approved nine or 10 applications from Greek patients. He added that Greece was either the first European country to provide such early access or among the very few to do so.
Why pancreatic cancer remains difficult to treat
Tsiotos identified three main reasons why pancreatic cancer continues to pose a major challenge for oncology.
First, the disease behaves aggressively at a biological level, progressing more rapidly than cancers such as breast or colorectal cancer.
Second, doctors often diagnose pancreatic cancer late because symptoms may appear only after the disease has advanced. General practitioners may also fail to recognise certain symptoms as potential signs of pancreatic cancer.
Warning signs can include persistent abdominal or back pain, the sudden onset of diabetes without an obvious explanation, greasy stools, reduced appetite and unexplained weight loss.
Third, the cancer frequently spreads to major arteries and veins in and around the pancreas before doctors diagnose it. This involvement of critical blood vessels often leads doctors to classify the tumour as inoperable.
Specialist surgery can expand treatment options
Tsiotos said his clinical team had been working since 2012 to help some patients whose pancreatic tumours doctors consider inoperable become eligible for surgery.
The approach involves removing the affected blood vessel or vessels along with the pancreatic tumour when the patient’s condition and the tumour’s characteristics permit the operation.
Since 2019, the team has published its results in American and European scientific journals and presented its findings at international medical conferences.
According to Tsiotos, converting an inoperable tumour into an operable one through this approach can quadruple survival. He said some patients treated by the team had survived for six, seven, eight or even 12 years.
He attributed these outcomes to a highly specialised surgical team, close cooperation among specialists, a high volume of pancreatic cancer operations and the adoption of advanced technologies, including robotic surgery.
These factors, alongside published clinical results, help establish a specialist clinic as an international referral centre for pancreatic diseases.
While daraxonrasib offers a promising new option for patients with advanced disease, Tsiotos said further research into its use at earlier stages could help determine whether doctors can achieve even better outcomes.
(Source: AMNA)
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