Teacher-researcher Maryvonne Ardourel points towards a pancreatic cancer cell on a micrograph displayed on a screen at the Inserm ART-RNAm laboratory of the CHR (Regional Hospital Centre), in Orleans, central France, on November 18, 2025. Researchers at Inserm are working to develop new treatments for numerous diseases using messenger RNA, which became widely known to the public through the vaccines developed against COVID-19, particularly to combat 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.” Those are the words of Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee, a Johns Hopkins pancreatic cancer researcher, in an interview with the New York Times. The beginning Jaffe is referring to is the fight to find a cure for pancreatic cancer.
As readers likely already know, pancreatic cancer is one of the tragic near-sure things of life. That’s why Sen. Ben Sasse’s recent announcement that he had pancreatic cancer was so jarring. It’s the same as death, and Sasse said as much. Rather than express hope, he was blunt that he would die. 50,000+Americans get a similar diagnosis every year, which means 50,000+ receive word annually that they’ll die.
Which is why it’s so exciting to reference Jaffee’s quote. There’s yet again hope where there formerly wasn’t. Thanks to Redwood City, CA’s Revolution Medicines, and its drug daraxonrasib, there’s rising evidence that pancreatic cancer can be treated.
To be clear about Revolution’s drug, the reporting so far indicates that it’s not a lifesaving cure. The Times put it bluntly that three pills taken daily eventually stop working, plus some patients don’t respond at all. Plus there’s difficult side effects that include “rash, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea, and raw, split fingertips.” Still, the latter is plainly an improvement on chemotherapy that hasn’t extended life for pancreatic cancer patients.
All of which speaks to the hope implied in daraxonrasib. Trials overseen by Revolution indicate that patients using the drug “lived for a median of over 13 months, compared with less than seven months for patients who had chemotherapy.” Progress.
Better yet, it’s the “beginning” as Jaffee says, “not the end.” With Revolution having revealed something possible for a disease long viewed as impossible, a real race has begun.
As the Times went on to report, “multiple companies have jumped into the fray. Dozens of similar drugs are now being tested for cancers of the pancreas, lung and colon.” Translated, abundant capital is being directed toward the search for cures for the three biggest killers in the cancer realm. The capital inflow is a happy indicator that doctors and scientists see hope and possibility where they formerly did not.
Where this takes humans and their health is impossible to know, but what’s certain amid all this is the basic truth that knowledge is wealth, and because of soaring investment in the search for cures for the “impossible” cancers, there’s potential where there hadn’t been for the longest time.
Stated simply, we’re going to know so much that we didn’t know in a portion of the healthcare space that formerly was defined by knowns of the death kind. Which means progress awaits no matter the cures (or not) that emerge.
That’s because in developing daraxonrasib, Revolution Medicines revealed possibilities where there hadn’t been any. The ultimate wealth. Here’s hoping there’s a next to this, as scientists standing on Revolution’s proverbial shoulders build on the creation of this most valuable, seemingly life-extending (no matter how short) drug that’s evidently so pregnant with knowledge.