New Hope In Pancreatic Cancer Fight --- Experimental drugs are showing potential to keep people with disease alive longer

An experimental individualized mRNA vaccine (autogene cevumeran), developed by BioNTech and Genentech, showed durable, long-term survival in pancreatic cancer patients in a Phase 1 trial. Seven of 8 patients (88%) whose immune systems responded to the vaccine remained alive 4 to 6 years later, defying the typical 13% five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer.

 

Key Findings of the Study:

 

    Targeted Approach: The personalized mRNA vaccine was designed for each patient, targeting specific neoantigens in their pancreatic cancer.

 

    Immune Response: The vaccine activated "killer T cells" that target tumors, with long-term effectiveness, according to findings discussed by NBC News.

 

    Unprecedented Results: In the small 16-patient trial, 8 patients showed an immune response (responders), and of those, 7 were still alive.

 

    Ongoing Research: Following these results reported by WCVB, larger, multisite trials are already underway to confirm these findings for pancreatic cancer. Russians are making such mRNA targeted vaccine for more common colorectal cancer. Interesting, that most good news about targeted vaccines for cancer are coming from Europeans – Germans and Russians.

 

Americans have an achievement in pancreatic cancer treatment too:

 

“Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. It killed nearly 52,000 Americans last year, many within a year of diagnosis. Now, there are some new experimental medicines with the potential to change that.

 

New data from two drugs showed it might be possible to keep the disease in check for longer than ever before. One drug, developed by Revolution Medicines, shrank tumors in roughly half of people who used it as a first treatment.

 

 And an mRNA vaccine made by Germany-based BioNTech and Genentech kept most pancreatic cancer patients who responded to it alive six years -- an unusually long stretch for a cancer that normally leaves only around one in eight people alive five years after diagnosis.

 

"This is a pivotal point in time for this disease, there's no question," said Dr. Eileen O'Reilly, a gastrointestinal oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City who led one of the RevMed-funded trials.

 

Pancreatic cancer is hard to detect and aggressive; most people aren't diagnosed until they are far along. Standard chemotherapy works for few patients. The disease is hard to treat for two distinct reasons. More than 90% of pancreatic tumors carry a mutation called RAS, which accelerates tumor growth and historically has been nearly impossible to treat with drugs. Many pancreatic tumors also carry relatively few mutations overall, which makes them harder for the immune system to detect and attack.

 

RevMed's drug, called daraxonrasib, targets RAS mutations. Results of a nearly 40-person study of people with late-stage pancreatic cancer showed that the drug, when used as the first treatment, shrank tumors in nearly half of the people treated.

 

The results, announced Tuesday at the American Association of Cancer Research annual meeting, led some researchers to wonder whether the drug might eventually replace chemo.

 

The results come days after RevMed reported that daraxonrasib, its RAS-targeting pill, nearly doubled overall survival for people with advanced pancreatic cancer compared with chemotherapy in a larger, later-stage trial.” [1]

 

1. U.S. News: New Hope In Pancreatic Cancer Fight --- Experimental drugs are showing potential to keep people with disease alive longer. Martinez, Xavier.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 22 Apr 2026: A3.