At the American Society of Clinical Oncology's 2026 annual conference in Chicago, a standing ovation erupted for a breakthrough that has long seemed impossible: a daily pill that nearly doubles survival time for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
For decades, pancreatic cancer has remained one of medicine's most stubborn adversaries. It grows quickly, resists traditional treatments, and often goes undetected until it has already spread. More than 90% of pancreatic cancers are driven by mutations in the KRAS gene—a genetic switch that researchers once thought could never be turned off. As Dr Sam Godfrey, science engagement lead at Cancer Research UK, explained, "KRAS used to be considered undruggable, like nothing could touch it. It was a bit like a light that's stuck on, with no actual switch to turn it off." Now that switch has finally been found.
The breakthrough drug, daraxonrasib, blocks the growth-powering proteins made by mutated RAS genes. In an international phase 3 trial involving 500 patients with advanced, previously treated pancreatic cancer, daraxonrasib increased average survival from 6.7 months to 13.2 months—nearly double the previous standard. Perhaps most remarkably, the daily pill caused fewer side effects than chemotherapy, offering patients both more time and a better quality of life during that time. Medicine regulators will now evaluate the data for potential approval as a standard treatment, with Godfrey expressing hope that the exceptionally strong results will accelerate the review process.
Pancreatic cancer is not alone in seeing progress at ASCO 2026. A triple-action approach is showing promise for advanced head and neck cancers that have resisted other treatments. Amivantamab, already available through the NHS for certain lung cancers, works by blocking two key switches that allow cancer to grow and spread, while simultaneously helping the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells. In the OrigAMI-4 trial, 102 patients with advanced or recurrent head and neck cancer received amivantamab as an injection. The results were striking: tumours shrank or disappeared entirely in 43 patients—more than 40%—with 15% showing no detectable signs of cancer. Dr Sarah Halford, head of medical sciences at Cancer Research UK's Centre for Drug Development, highlighted that amivantamab's delivery as a simple injection makes it quicker and more convenient than many alternatives, potentially easier for patients to tolerate while undergoing what can be a profoundly disruptive treatment for head and neck cancer.
Meanwhile, early-stage trials are demonstrating that combining new targeted therapies with established chemotherapy can offer hope for advanced bowel cancer patients with limited options. The INBRX-109 trial, led by researchers at the Royal Marsden NHS Trust and the Institute of Cancer Research in London, is testing ozekibart alongside FOLFIRI chemotherapy. Ozekibart works by activating a protein on cancer cell surfaces that triggers cell death. Dr Hazel Lote, a lead investigator on the trial and recipient of backing from the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK, reported that the combination not only shrank tumours in some patients but halted cancer progression in many others.
These advances from Chicago represent a shared theme: personalized, targeted approaches that attack cancer from multiple angles while minimizing harm to patients. Each breakthrough brings the promise of more time, better quality of life, and renewed hope for people facing some of the most difficult-to-treat cancers.