Daraxonrasib’s success in treating pancreatic cancer is a reminder that clinical cancer researchers are heroes

At the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, the plenary sessions are one of the main events. A handful of clinical research studies are chosen from the thousands that are presented at the conference to represent the biggest achievements from the field in the last year. This year, results from the phase III RASolute-302 trial were the unequivocal highlight of the plenary hall. With an extended standing ovation, the results showed that patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who were given daraxonrasib, sponsored by Revolution Medicines, had a median overall survival of 13.2 months compared to a 6.7-month OS for those given chemotherapy.A story about the trial will be in the upcoming issue of The Cancer Letter. But in this week’s In the Headlines, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, and Jacquelyn Cobb, associate editor, talk about the buzz that these results are generating.Paul has seen the prognosis of other cancer types—such as  melanoma and multiple myeloma—completely transform after the development of effective drugs. “I was there when people were saying, ‘Oh, melanoma, forget it.’ But then, suddenly, there was stuff [treatment options]. Melanoma, multiple myeloma—my God, what catastrophe that was. And look at what's happening now. I mean, there's a lot to be said.”Paul said that this is a reminder of the importance of the biomedical research enterprise, and of clinical cancer researchers specifically. In last week’s issue of The Cancer Letter, the cover story was an episode of The Directors, a special segment of The Cancer Letter Podcast, where Paul spoke with two principle investigators of NCI Community Oncology Research Program, or NCORP, sites. “This is the week where we better take a good look at how well we are treating our clinical researchers. And we better keep looking at it… Seriously, these folks are heroes,” Paul said. “They should be treated well and respected and well funded because guess what? You cannot do ... NCORP brings in about a third of the clinical trials participants. You wouldn't be able to answer the questions we're answering and we better come up with more money for them and continue to come up with more money for them.“You can write about all the rogues in the field all you want, but you know what? There are some really great people who are really moving this field forward and we're all lucky to see this and covering this is a privilege,” Paul said.This episode is sponsored by Blood Cancer United. Visit bloodcancerunited.org/equity to register and apply.Stories mentioned in this podcast include:The Directors: NCORP PIs discuss workforce shortages, expanding workload, and crushing burden of regulatory oversight When CAM is added to standard therapies, survival rates drop, observational study finds As rural cancer disparities persist, aligning policy with care delivery models can close the gapUK Markey’s Denise Fabian: Theranostics lets us pair a diagnostic with a radioactive therapeutic that target the same molecule A modest proposal from a former FDA commissioner: Add antidepressants to the nation’s water supply Warning: This is not a public health recommendation. Do not implement.A transcript of this podcast is available: https://cancerletter.com/podcastc/20260603-daraxonrasib/