Whitehouse Cheers Landmark Pancreatic Cancer Drug

Whitehouse's Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act supported foundational research behind the breakthrough

Washington, DC - Today, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) cheered the results of Revolution Medicines' clinical trial for its new pancreatic cancer drug daraxonrasib - the first of its kind to substantially extend the lives of patients with the cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. and remains the only common cancer with a five-year survival rate below 20 percent. Whitehouse's Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act laid the scientific groundwork for discoveries like daraxonrasib.

"On behalf of every Rhode Island family touched by pancreatic cancer, I am thrilled by Revolution Medicines' breakthrough," said Whitehouse. "My Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act years ago laid a foundation for this breakthrough. As a result, patients today have new hope."

In 2012, Whitehouse led passage of the Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act, which mandated that the National Cancer Institute develop a scientific framework and national research priorities for deadly cancers like pancreatic cancer. As part of that process, the National Cancer Institute the following year created the RAS Initiative, which granted awards to scientists in pursuit of better understanding the RAS gene that, along with its mutations, is found in over 90 percent of pancreatic cancers. Daraxonrasib targets RAS mutations, which were previously thought of as undruggable.

"The promising results from the daraxonrasib study are a powerful example of why cancer research matters," said Dr. Julie Gralow, Chief Medical Officer, Association for Clinical Oncology. "This clinical trial represents a watershed moment for patients with pancreatic cancer, as well as other patients with cancers being driven by the RAS gene. When the National Cancer Institute launched the RAS Initiative in 2013, some scientists believed these mutations were 'undruggable.' Now, researchers have found a way to target cancers, as first demonstrated in pancreatic cancer, driven by the activity of this gene and its protein. Progress against cancer does not happen overnight. It takes years of discovery, sustained investment, and a strong bipartisan commitment from Congress to help turn promising science into real hope for patients."

"Sunday was a historic moment for pancreatic cancer. For a disease that has long been marked by limited treatment options and often devastating outcomes, seeing a therapy double overall survival in patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer is both extraordinary and encouraging," said Julie Fleshman, president and CEO of PanCAN. "These advances are the result of decades of scientific research made possible by sustained bi-partisan federal investment. We are very grateful to Senator Whitehouse who has been a steadfast partner to PanCAN as he continues to honor his mother. We are entering a new era of treatment options for pancreatic cancer patients, but still more work to be done to improve outcomes, and it will take continued federal funding to make survival the expectation and not the exception."

Whitehouse has led the fight in Congress to end pancreatic cancer. Whitehouse spearheaded the creation of the Pancreatic Cancer Research Program (PCARP) at the Department of Defense in 2020. Congress most recently appropriated $20 million to the program in 2025, and the program has already produced promising research.