Spanish Scientists Cured Pancreatic Cancer in Rats

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest malignancies in modern medicine. Most patients are diagnosed late, after the disease has already spread, and the five-year survival rate remains extremely low. The most common form, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), is especially aggressive because nearly 90% of tumors carry mutations in the KRAS gene - a mutation that drives uncontrolled cellular proliferation and resistance to therapy. 

For decades, treatment options such as chemotherapy have offered only limited benefit. Even newer targeted therapies often fail because pancreatic tumors rapidly activate alternative survival pathways and develop resistance mechanisms. In addition, these tumors are surrounded by a dense fibrotic stroma that limits immune access and drug penetration, making the disease exceptionally difficult to treat. 

Now, researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Mariano Barbacid, have reported remarkably promising results in mouse models of pancreatic cancer. Instead of targeting a single pathway, the team developed a triple-drug strategy to collapse the tumor’s entire survival network.

The therapy combines:
Daraxonrasib (RMC-6236) - a KRAS pathway inhibitor,

Afatinib - an EGFR/HER2 inhibitor that blocks compensatory signaling,

And SD36, a STAT3-targeting PROTAC that degrades a key protein involved in tumor survival, inflammation, and immune evasion. 

Together, the treatment simultaneously blocks the primary oncogenic driver, prevents escape signaling, and suppresses independent survival pathways. The result is what researchers describe as a “network-level collapse” of tumor signaling. 

The therapy was tested across multiple advanced mouse models, including genetically engineered mice and patient-derived xenografts containing human tumor tissue. This is important because success across different models increases the likelihood that findings may eventually translate into human disease.

The results are striking.

In many mice, tumors disappeared completely and did not return even after many months. In one experiment involving 18 mice implanted with human pancreatic cancer cells, 16 remained cancer-free for over 200 days - an unusual durable response in pancreatic cancer research, Researchers also reported minimal toxicity and surprisingly good treatment tolerance.

While these findings are still preclinical and far from a confirmed human cure, they represent one of the most encouraging developments in pancreatic cancer research in recent years. The study suggests that future cancer therapies may succeed not by targeting a single mutation, but by simultaneously shutting down the interconnected survival systems tumors depend on.