6 ms·
New pancreatic cancer drug might open the door to much longer survival times
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06625320 https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06625320
https://archive.ph/d4mT2 https://archive.ph/d4mT2
- ispeters 5mo agohttps://archive.ph/d4mT2 https://archive.ph/d4mT2
- DivingForGold 5mo ago[flagged]
- variety8675 5mo agoThe study this article references is here: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06625320 https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06625320
- fhdkweig 5mo agoThe relevant line is: "oncologists went wild over the results of a drug called daraxonrasib." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daraxonrasib https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daraxonrasib
- plmpsu 5mo agoDoes anyone have a link to the conference session?
- noisy_boy 5mo agoI kinda want to see a group of oncologists lose it and go wild and party like never before.
- pharaohgeek 5mo agoThere was a KRAS conference a couple of weeks ago, and as I understand it that's exactly what happened. It is such a game changer that they could not contain their excitement. For all the ridiculous talk of "they're being paid by 'Big Pharma' to prolong treatment to make them money", I assure you that oncologists DEEPLY want to become "obsolete". They want a cure. They want patients to live. Drugs like this and many others on the horizon are another step in that process.
- chrismsimpson 5mo agoYou sir are the salt of the internet
- gcanyon 5mo agoAs is often the case, the title is hyperbolic. The discovery applies to 20% of tumors, and "one of cancer's significant defenses" or "a key weakness of cancer" would be more accurate. That said, I'll happily take "we discovered a key weakness in 20% of cancers," please and thank you.
- basisword 5mo agoWhat does this mean in layman's terms? How will this potentially help me if I get cancer?
- GaggiX 5mo agoOne of the many therapies that are being developed so that you can survive longer even with the most lethal tumours.
- epistasis 5mo agoCancer is not one thing, it's a huge zoo of many many many ways that cells start to break the social contract and divide in an uncontrolled manner. One of the most commonly observed broken mechanisms is mutation in the gene KRAS that turns this on/off growth switch into the permanently on position. This has been known for decades, of course. And there have been huge amounts of effort to try to develop drugs that target KRAS in cancer, but for decades it's always been thought of as 'undruggable' because of the difficulty of finding any molecules that would affect it. This new drug, that finally treats KRAS mutated cancers, goes about it in a new way. Instead of trying to gum up the works of a single protein by sticking a small chemical in it, it effectively "glues" the KRAS protein to another protein, CypA, which keeps the switch away from reaching the normal areas where it's "on switch" activity works. So this new drug means two things: 1) a lot of the most difficult to treat cancers are now far more treatable, and in the next 1-5 years clinical trials will tell us which cancers this particular drug works well for, 2) there's an entire new class of drug activity that everybody is chasing at this very moment, so in 5-25 years we'll likely have a huge number more of these sorts of treatments.
- 5mo ago
- an0malous 5mo agoI’m surprised Michael Levin’s research hasn’t expanded much beyond a certain YouTube media bubble. They’re able to start and stop cancer growth with only voltage changes between cells, likewise they can also trigger regeneration or anatomical changes using voltage changes. His research seems to suggest a lot of important anatomical plans are stored in an electric field around the body, not in the DNA. This model’s explanation for cancer is that some cells become disconnected from this field and start growing independently of the overall body plan.
- neonstatic 5mo agoI love his work (even though I know little more than what he says in interviews). I am also surprised it's not more widely known / applied. I am very skeptical of conspiracy-minded thinking, so I'd much rather assume his and his team's work hasn't reached escape velocity from obscurity. Especially with larger industries, it takes time and significant breakthroughs to become "a household name", so to speak.
- TaupeRanger 5mo agoThey are working on getting in vivo studies going from what I remember - it's going to take a positive result in a trial on real patients to get attention - that's just how medicine works. You have to show it actually improves longevity and/or patient quality of life before anyone has a reason to care.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- pdar4123 5mo agoPlease remember that science is under attack in the United States - new proposals would gut the nih even beyond the horror that is ongoing. As a scientist I am horrified and I truly hope that we don’t abandon the usas historically strong investment in the future.
- fillskills 5mo agoKindly share more details
- SubiculumCode 5mo ago1. Trump has been trying to cut Science budgers by larger percentages for a while now. Congress has not let them. 2. NIH funding notice of awards has slowed to a crawl since Trump did not get his wish to cut Science funding. 3. Putting scientific funding under political control, instructing them to ignore the reviews conducted by peer scientists. 4. Have practically made international collaborations on grants impossible. An expert in Canada or Europe that would be great? Pretty much, too bad. 5. Pushing policies that make grants cancelable at any moment without need to have a justified reason, including potentially for exercising free speech, disagreeing with Administration doctrine, etc, or because you're ugly. This and the funding uncertainty makes planning difficult...just like business, stability/predictability matters. 6. Pushing policies that prevent funds to help cover costs of dissemination, including conference costs.
- gavinray 5mo agoTo offer context for others: The bigger deal about this is that KRAS was considered an "undruggable" target. Recent advancements have allowed us to design biologics to do things we previously thought impossible, which broadens the horizons for other treatments in the future. Baby steps.
- Nippon_anzai 5mo agoWhat's next then?
- SubiculumCode 5mo agoOther cancers, obesity, name it.
- pharaohgeek 5mo agoThe Johns Hopkins Children's' Center is looking at trialing it for rhabdomyosarcoma, a particularly deadly form of cancer that primary targets children. If successful, this would represent a HUGE leap forward in its treatment.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- btown 5mo agoAnother ongoing HN thread from yesterday around some exciting cancer treatment breakthroughs, this time with a CRISPR Cas12a2 mechanism: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48505231 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48505231 This subthread there is a fascinating explainer about one user's journey into funding and incentivizing research into their own rare form of blood cancer, and how they are able to push forward the state of the art: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48506997 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48506997 - something of a modern-day (and more accurate) Lorenzo's Oil!
- siimianwords 5mo ago[dead]
- pancreaticdiet 5mo ago[flagged]
- rylando 5mo agoDo they maintain the same diet today?
- pancreaticdiet 5mo agoYes. They slacked a bit some months following the surgery, and their blood markers started to drastically slip almost immediately. Might be also worth noting that prior to all of this they were a staunch "antivegan midwestern farm boy" for 70 years. Now, after witnessing the results, they are all in on the new dietary lifestyle change, and tell all their friends.
- mgerdts 5mo agoBy any chance does this person live near Montrose CO and tend to the lawn at a church next to the Holiday Inn Express?
- goda90 5mo agoI dug a lot into "starving cancer" while we tried to save our dog from an aggressive sarcoma. I can't find his name off hand but I recall reading about a researcher who used a ketogenic diet to keep glucose low, and then occasionally gave drugs to "hammer" the cancer by quickly and temporarily depleting glutamine as well.
- TaupeRanger 5mo agoUnfortunately, anecdotes are not data, and although a patient can try anything they want, there is no way to know that such dietary changes are beneficial or potentially harmful for most patients without doing a randomized controlled trial and hoping for strong adherence from the participants.
- pancreaticdiet 5mo ago
- onesandofgrain 5mo agoWe should be spending the same amount of money on health and disease as we spend on AI. Ogogogogogo
- Nifty3929 5mo agoIt is more than plausible that spending money on AI is spending money on healthcare. I believe with little certainty that AI will help us find new ways to fight disease, improve our health and live longer lives.
- onesandofgrain 5mo agodafuq did u just write u bot? ur negating urself
- Nifty3929 5mo agoBecause this? "I believe with little certainty" Actually, I think it's powerful to acknowledge when my beliefs are weak. I still believe it - I think it's true, and I don't have any conflicting beliefs. But still it would not take a lot of evidence to change my mind, and since this is a prediction about the future, I will not be very surprised to find out I was wrong.
- sharts 5mo agoMay have? It also may have not.
- v3ss0n 5mo agoHow many cure for cancer news we have 10 yrs ago and none of them goes online?
- sarchertech 5mo agoThis is a drug that has passed phase 3 clinical trials.
- aurisl 5mo agoHorrible disease. We just buried my wife’s father because of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. A month ago, he was still living his life as usual. Then he developed abdominal pain, was diagnosed, and died three weeks later. I think we should also invest more in better diagnostics and early cancer detection. That could save many lives too.
- klittle32 5mo agoI’m sorry for your loss. I lost my father to it. Like you said, it happened so quickly. Truly horrible disease.
- ethbr1 5mo ago> I think we should also invest more in better diagnostics and early cancer detection. The issue with non-imaging early cancer detection seems to be false positives. Afaik, medical regulatory agencies have been... resistant... to allowing marketing of tests. The thinking seems to be "If people get a positive result, they may opt for interventions that are more harmful than their current disease state." But, to me, that seems to leave unmentioned the fact that there's a finite "untreatable" cancer progression line, and while that's extending to later disease states, it's still a helluva lot easier to treat earlier.
- kofj 5mo ago[dead]
- dominotw 5mo agoi remember so much excitement around radioligand therapies like 177Lu-PSMA-617 being better than chemo and with way way less sides . And great improvements in pfs and os. didnt seem to have lived up to the promise. seemed to have accelerated prostate cancer for my father who passed away in mere three months after first dose.
- robinsoncrusue 5mo agoSame. 177Lu-PSMA-617 caused severe blood cell shortage and within a month after the second dose my dad died. Immunotherapies on the other hand seems to work wonders for many who respond to it. I regret for not trying it.
- AbstractH24 5mo agoMy mother's cousin just died from pancreatic cancer on Monday. She was in a trial for this drug and failed. Trying to figure out how I feel about this or how my family would. Personally, I have epilepsy and am increasingly aware that while some paradigm-shifting treatments are on the horizon, they are a decade or so away and likely won't come to market in time to fully help me (particularly reverse small but accumulating damage caused by seizures). And that's a weird feeling.
- chilldsgn 5mo agoI am sorry for your loss... Someone I love was also on this drug and it wasn't effective. I hope it helps some people, this is an awful disease.
- AbstractH24 5mo agoThank you Failing a treatment that has held promise for so many others and been heralded as paradigm-shifting is such a weird place to be. There's comfort in knowing others won't suffer, but loneliness is knowing you or a loved one still is.
- pharaohgeek 5mo agoI was fortunate to participate in the trial for this drug for over a year. It is nothing short of a miracle drug (although there is still more that can be done). I was forced to withdraw after the drug lost its effectiveness and my disease progressed. That said, though, for over a year all of my tumors either disappeared, shrank, or remained stable. For a disease that was largely considered a near-immediate death sentence, this drug is an absolute game change. I am eternally grateful for the scientists and researchers at RevMed.
- monocularvision 5mo agoThanks for sharing your story. Praying for you and your family in this time.
- fastasucan 5mo agoThis cancer is a pain. My father was extremely lucky, and was diagnosed early. Next up was months of chemo that left him to be a shell of himself. Then he could be operated. They removed parts of his stomach, his spleen and duodenum. And his whole pancreas. Complications after his surgery meant he had two more. He is now, three weeks after the first operation learning to walk again. It will be an additional week or two untill he can eat. (Without the complication he would have been walking and eating two weeks after the first operation). Oh and he is a diabetic now, since they removed his pancreas. Just crossing my fingers that he will get out of the hospital without any more complications, and adapt to the new life.
- h4kunamata 5mo agoDo you think we don't have cure already for cancers??? Look for how much money the pharmaceutic cartels make annually, that is why these "drugs" aka cure will never ever be released because its side effects are still unknown.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]