My mom, Resa Reddick Cancro, was one of the strongest people I have ever known. When pancreatic cancer threatened to take her from us, she refused to give up. She fought to stay alive long enough to see me attend my senior prom and move into my college dorm last year. These were milestones she was determined to witness, and she did.
My mom was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early August 2024. After 19 months, she passed away in March 2026. Losing her has changed me forever.
My senior year of high school should have been one of the most exciting times of my life. While my friends looked forward to prom, graduation, and college, I tried to enjoy those moments while knowing my mom was dying.
Even last January, when we learned her cancer was terminal, she never lost her determination to keep fighting. As I tried to enjoy the normal teenage experiences, I constantly wondered how much time I had left with my mom.
As graduation approached, I dreaded leaving my mom to go to college. I chose the University of Central Florida, just an hour from home, and will be forever grateful for that decision. As her condition worsened, being close gave me precious extra time with her that I would never trade for anything. And when she was hospitalized for the final time in March, I was able to rush to her side and hold her in her final moments. I will always be thankful I had that chance to say that last “I love you.”
I am incredibly grateful for every extra moment I had with my mom, but I will always wish we had been given more time.
In some ways, my mom bested cancer for a long time, but she did not have enough effective treatment options to give her the future she deserved.
Too many families know this heartbreak. Most pancreatic cancer patients die within a year, and only about 13% of people survive five years. In 2026, an estimated 67,530 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease, and 52,740 will die from it.
Cases are rising. It has rapidly gone from being the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths to approaching the second.
Pancreatic cancer is especially devastating because surgery offers the only realistic chance of a cure, but most patients are not candidates because their cancer has already advanced. Chemotherapy can extend life, but treatment benefits are limited.
My mom received two types of chemotherapy and two types of radiation. Like so many patients, she needed more than treatments currently available could offer–and paid for it with her life.
That is why emerging combination therapies offer such hope.
One promising approach pairs two investigational drugs: daraxonrasib, developed by Revolution Medicines, and vopimetostat from Tango Therapeutics. The drugs target different vulnerabilities in pancreatic tumors, making it harder for cancer to keep growing.
In updated study data announced this month, 18 of 22 (82%) of patients with previously treated pancreatic cancer experienced tumor shrinkage. The nine-month progression-free survival rate was 88%. These are preliminary results from a small, early-stage study, but offer real hope.
Promising results like these matter enormously as patients deserve an urgent path toward treatment that can safely and meaningfully extend lives.
Developing combination therapies requires cooperation between companies with individual business interests, strategies, and financial pressures. Those priorities matter, as combining treatments that attack cancer in different ways could offer patients a better chance, but should not present a barrier.
Revolution Medicines CEO Mark Goldsmith has spoken of collecting more data before drawing conclusions about investigational treatments and, of course, scientific rigor matters. But his timeline is very different from a pancreatic cancer patient facing death within a year.
The goal should be providing the most effective treatment for patients—not protecting market share. Tango and Revolution should collaborate to rigorously evaluate their combination and move promising research forward as quickly and responsibly as possible.
My mom did not want to leave us. I know she will always watch over me. But she will not be there when I graduate from college, enter medical school, or hold her first grandchild. She can’t hold my dad’s hand as they grow older together, remembering the beautiful life they shared.
Cancer steals milestones and simple moments families can never get back. Their broken hearts are beyond the scope of medicine.
Most pancreatic cancer deaths occur between 65 and 74, the college graduation and first grandbaby years. I want other pancreatic cancer patients to have that time, for their children to have parents beside them at celebrations. For spouses to grow old together.
Biotechnology companies have the ability to help make those futures possible. They cannot guarantee that every promising treatment will work or disregard data. But they can choose to put patients first, collaborate when science calls for it, and pursue promising therapies with the urgency this disease demands.
My mom fought for every extra day she could get. The next family facing pancreatic cancer deserves a chance at more time, too. For companies developing tomorrow’s treatments, that should be the goal before everything else.
The urgency of biologics companies should always meet or exceed the urgency of patients.
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