WASHINGTON (WOWO) — A drug recently approved for certain patients with advanced pancreatic cancer is showing early promise as a potential treatment for another major form of the disease.
Rasonque, also known by its generic name daraxonrasib, was found to shrink tumors in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer whose tumors carried RAS mutations, according to results from an early-stage clinical trial.
The findings could be significant because RAS mutations are common in lung cancer and have historically been difficult to target with drugs according to WXYZ.
Researchers tested Rasonque in 136 patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. The patients had RAS-mutated tumors and had already undergone other cancer treatments.
The results were encouraging, but researchers caution that the study was designed primarily to evaluate the drug’s safety and determine whether there were signs it could effectively target the cancer.
Tumors shrank in 31% of patients receiving the lower dose and in 37% of those receiving the highest dose, according to the study results.
That does not mean Rasonque is ready to replace standard lung cancer treatments.
The trial did not directly compare the drug with standard chemotherapy, making it too early to determine whether Rasonque is more effective than existing treatments or whether it can help patients live longer.
Rasonque works by targeting RAS, a family of proteins that can become mutated and help cancer cells grow and survive.
Those mutations are involved in several aggressive cancers, including pancreatic cancer and lung cancer.
The potential importance of the drug is tied to the challenge of treating cancers driven by RAS mutations. While some targeted treatments are already available for specific RAS-related mutations, many patients with other RAS mutations have had fewer targeted treatment options.
The lung cancer trial focused on patients whose disease had already progressed despite previous treatments, making the tumor responses particularly notable.
However, the treatment also came with significant side effects.
Nearly every patient in the study reported at least one adverse event. Common side effects included rash, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Some patients also experienced inflammation affecting the mouth or digestive tract, pneumonia and decreased blood counts.
More than half of the patients experienced severe or medically significant side effects.
That safety profile is one reason researchers say additional clinical trials are needed before the drug’s role in lung cancer can be determined.
A larger trial comparing Rasonque with standard chemotherapy is already underway.
That study is expected to provide more information about how effective the drug is, how long patients benefit from treatment and whether it can ultimately improve survival.
The drug’s potential use in lung cancer comes shortly after its approval for advanced pancreatic cancer.
