Trending
LANSING - A new drug to treat pancreatic cancer was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August, giving hope for combatting a disease with few treatment options and a high death rate.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Rasonque, known generically as daraxonrasib, for patients with pancreatic cancer after positive results from large-scale clinical trials, including a trial at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.
"This drug will transform how we treat pancreatic cancer - giving people the opportunity for more time with loved ones, the possibility of a better quality of life and renewed confidence that continued research will deliver even greater advances," said Anna Berkenbilt, the chief scientific and medical officer at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network headquartered in Iowa said in a press release.
According to Phillip Phillip, an oncologist and co-director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center at Henry Ford Health, drugs like Rasonque represent a real step forward in treatment.
"We're not saying here that it's eradicating the cancer and making patients cancer-free, but it's a great first step, to start, in a disease that, for decades, we didn't really have any good (treatment) for," said Phillip.
However, the FDA has approved the drug only for second-line patients who already failed to respond to a previous treatment.
"They may be on it for six months, 12 months, 18 months. It all depends on how their disease is responding and how they're tolerating the treatment," said Phillip.
According to the drug's manufacturer, California-based Revolution Medicines, it specifically targets mutations in the RAS family of genes, which control cell division and growth.
"The RAS family of genes is a large family that is involved in growth and proliferation of cells, which is why it has been targeted for decades for cancer. It is perhaps most devastating in pancreatic cancer, where activating mutations are frequent and the survival rate is low," said Jaime Alan, a professor of pharmacology at Michigan State University.
The drug comes as a breakthrough as the first RAS inhibitor approved for pancreatic cancer. Mutations in the RAS family of genes drive over 90% of pancreatic cancer, according to the National Institutes of Health.
According to the FDA's press release about its approval of the drug, it would be prescribed for adults who have not responded to previous treatment, with an annual pre-insurance cost of $480,000, according to the New York Times.