For decades, pancreatic cancer has been one of the most lethal cancers, with few effective treatment options. A new drug, daraxonrasib, targets the KRAS mutation that fuels most pancreatic tumors—something many scientists once thought couldn't be done. In a major clinical trial, the treatment nearly doubled survival for patients with advanced disease and reduced the risk of death by 60%.

The overall survival rate for people who got daraxonrasib was 13.2 months, nearly double the 6.7 months people survived on standard chemotherapy alone.

The experimental drug daraxonrasib, which doubled survival time in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, may also prove effective for lung, colon and ovarian cancers.