US regulator approves treatment for lethal pancreatic cancer

The US Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of a treatment for pancreatic cancer that could usher in a new era in the management of one of the deadliest forms of the disease. 

The drug, with the brand name Rasonque, is developed by the US startup Revolution Medicines. A clinical trial demonstrated that it could double the survival time of certain patients.

"Today's approval provides a critical new option for patients facing an extraordinarily difficult and historically hard-to-treat cancer," FDA acting commissioner Kyle Diamantas said in a statement.

While not a cure, the treatment, taken as a pill, has generated enthusiasm among oncologists and patient advocacy groups. It potentially offers additional months of life for patients suffering from a disease that carries a particularly grim prognosis.

The treatment uses a molecule called daraxonrasib and has proved far more effective than standard chemotherapy in clinical trials. 

Half of the patients who received the drug survived for more than 13 months—twice as long as the group treated with chemotherapy. 

These results were widely acclaimed by the medical community and marked the first significant breakthrough against this cancer in decades. 

They also offer hope for the development of treatments for other patients, as the molecule targets a protein involved in various cancers that had proven impossible to target until very recently.