Pancreatic cancer
Injection has already destroyed tumors in the head and neck; will be tested in Portugal. In pancreatic cancer, a drug brought applause and tears.
As Vera Lúcia Arreigoso summarizes, in , this is news like this that “any health journalist would really like to write about”. There are even two of them, on the same day; and both were announced at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.
First, the new treatment head and neck anti-cancer. It’s a injection that already destroyed tumors in a clinical trial with 102 people.
The injection has a new substance, amivantamab. Perform three actions: blocks EGFR (protein that helps tumor growth); blocks MET (cancer cells use this pathway to escape treatment); helps activate the immune system.
The treatment only lasts few weeks: It’s not intravenous, it’s under the skin – it’s quicker and more comfortable.
The innovation, whose results surprised experts, decreased or eliminated the tumor in almost half (43) of the participants: decreased in 28 cases, eliminated in the other 15.
The injection will be tested (also) in Portugal. For now, between 15 and 17 Portuguese patients, for a total of 500 in several countries. Participants did not undergo other treatments.
The coordinator of the trial in Portugal, Diogo Alpuim Costa, explains that the recruitment phase has already begun and expects that the first patient to follow this treatment in Portugal will start this month, June.
The results will still take years.
Pancreas
In another context, in the fight against breast cancer pancreas, one reduced the risk of death by 60% and doubled lifespan of cancer patients.
The drug was used in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (pancreatic cancer that has already spread throughout the body).
The new substance is called darakhonrasib and the average survival rate, the expected lifespan from the moment of diagnosis, went from 6.6 to 13.2 months – this among patients with the most common mutation in pancreatic cancer, RAS G12.
O tumor he was reduced significantly in 31% of the sick; with chemotherapy, the average is 11.2%.
Treatment is a tablet. It has practically no side effects.
About 10,000 oncologists, when they saw the results at the ASCO conference, stood up and they applauded. And some they cried.
Survival doubled – Chicago, June 1, 2026. The plenary session of the American Society of Clinical Oncology — the largest and most influential clinical oncology congress on the planet — is not usually a place for easy emotions.
But when the numbers from the RASolute 302 study appeared in…
— g1 (@g1)
They may be seeing the greatest medical progress ever in this tumor.
