Breakthrough in Pancreatic Cancer Research

Pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of 13% as of January 2026. This episode discusses a new triple therapy study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Mariano Barbacid and researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) developed a treatment that eradicated pancreatic tumors in mice. The tumors did not return for more than 200 days after the mice stopped receiving the medication.

The treatment targets three specific pathways simultaneously: KRAS, EGFR, and STAT3. It uses a combination of three drugs. Duraxonrasib is a KRAS-on inhibitor currently in Phase 3 human trials. Afatinib is an FDA-approved drug already used to treat lung cancer. SD-36 is an experimental molecule that forces the body to clear broken cancer cells.

You should care about this episode because it describes a shift toward a potential cure instead of standard disease management. The podcast explains why previous single-drug treatments failed and how this new engineering approach prevents cancer from building resistance. You will learn about the science behind these results and the expected timeline for human availability.