Teacher-researcher Maryvonne Ardourel shows a pancreatic cancer cell in a micrograph displayed on a screen at the Inserm ART-RNAm laboratory of the CHR (Regional Hospital Centre), in Orléans, central France, on November 18, 2025. Researchers at Inserm are working to develop new treatments for many diseases that are widely known to the public. vaccines developed against COVID-19, especially to fight pancreatic cancer, one of the most aggressive forms. (Photo by JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP) (Photo by JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP via Getty Images)
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“It’s the beginning, not the end.” These are the words of Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee, a Johns Hopkins pancreatic cancer researcher, in an interview with New York Times. The principle Jaffe is referring to is the fight to find a cure for pancreatic cancer.
As readers probably already know, pancreatic cancer is one of life’s tragic near-certainties. That’s why Senator Ben Sasse’s recent announcement that he had pancreatic cancer was so jarring. It is the same as death, and Sasse said as much. Instead of expressing his hope, he was blunt that he was going to die. 50,000+ Americans receive a similar diagnosis each year, which means 50,000+ are told annually that they will die.
That’s why it’s so exciting to cite Jaffee’s quote. There is hope again where there was none before. Thanks to Redwood City, CA’s Revolution Medicines and the drug Daraxonrasib, there is growing evidence that pancreatic cancer can be treated.
To be clear about Revolution’s drug, reports so far indicate that it is not a life-saving treatment. THE Times Put bluntly, three pills taken daily eventually stop working, and some patients don’t respond at all. In addition, there are difficult side effects that include “rash, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and raw, broken fingers.” However, the latter is clearly an improvement in chemotherapy that has not extended life for pancreatic cancer patients.
All of this speaks to the hope implied in daraxonrasib. Trials overseen by Revolution show that patients using the drug “lived an average of more than 13 months, compared to less than seven months for patients receiving chemotherapy.” Progress.
Even better, it’s the “beginning,” as Jaffee says, “not the end.” With Revolution having revealed something possible about a disease long thought impossible, a real fight has begun.
Like the Times He went on to say, “several companies have jumped into the fray. Dozens of similar drugs are now being tested for pancreatic, lung and colon cancers.” Translated, abundant capital is directed towards the search for cures for the three biggest killers in the cancer kingdom. The influx of capital is a happy indicator that doctors and scientists are seeing hope and possibility where they didn’t before.
Where this leads man and his health is impossible to know, but what is certain in all of this is the basic truth that knowledge is wealth, and because of increasing investment in finding cures for “impossible” cancers, there is potential where it has not been for a long time.
Simply put, we’re going to learn so much we didn’t know in a part of the health care space that used to be defined by familiars of the death genre. Which means progress awaits regardless of the cures (or not) that emerge.
That’s because during the development of daraxonrasib, Revolution Medicines uncovered possibilities where none existed. Absolute wealth. Here’s hoping there’s something next to it as the scientists standing on the proverbial shoulders of the Revolution build on the creation of this most valuable, seemingly life-extending (however brief) drug that’s apparently so pregnant with knowledge.
