I can't believe this didn't get more media attention.
In a breakthrough study, scientists at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by veteran oncologist Mariano Barbacid, have found a way to "achieve tumor regression" in mice. While treating a disease in mice does not always equal treating it effectively in humans, it does gives us some hope, especially when you consider that when it comes to this type of cancer, there isn't always much positive news associated with it.
Pancreatic is the 11th-most common cancer diagnosis in the United States, and according to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, "More than 67,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2026. That is roughly 185 people diagnosed every day."
It's also one of the deadliest cancer diagnoses. One of the reasons for this is the lack of regular or available screening. This type of cancer is also harder to detect until it reaches later stages because it can remain asymptomatic in early stages.
And it's one of the most aggressive, both locally in the pancreas and via metastasis. The "cancerous cells can break away from the primary tumor in the pancreas, enter the bloodstream or lymphatic system, travel throughout the body and form secondary tumors in distant organs and tissues, such as the liver, lungs and peritoneum." This often limits treatment options.
According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer that hasn't spread beyond the pancreas is 44%. If it has spread within the same region of the body, it's 17%, and it's spread to distant parts of the body, it's 3%. Overall, it has a 13% five-year survival rate. That's pretty grim.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and presented this week.
It asserts that one major problem is that current drugs for this type of cancer only work for a few months before the tumors adapt to them. Using a triple combination therapy model changes that. The result is something that no researchers have been able to achieve in the past.
In most pancreatic cancer cases, the KRAS oncogene gene mutates. The combination of the three drugs involved in the therapy — daraxonrasib (an experimental KRAS blocker), afatinib (an approved drug for certain lung cancers that shuts down EGFR signals), and SD36 (which knocks out STAT3, a backup survival protein tumors use to resist treatment) — hit it at three critical points at once.
When tested in mice, it wiped out the pancreatic tumors completely with no regrowth for an extended period that would equal many years in a human lifespan.
"Well, what our research has achieved, in short, is a therapy, a triple therapy, that is, composed of three inhibitors, which eliminates experimental pancreatic tumors and also makes that disappearance long-lasting, that is, that resistance and relapses do not reappear, which is the main problem that exists now in the clinic," Dr. Barbacid said in a video. "These results were achieved after several years of work and consist of a therapy with three inhibitors that attack three essential targets for malignant transformation, for the development of pancreatic cancer."
He concludes, "And above all, there are two very important, essential aspects: the tumor disappears, and resistance doesn't develop. A third, also very important, aspect is that there are no side effects."
You can watch the video below, but it's in Spanish.
🚨🇪🇸 BREAKING — Spanish Scientists Cured Pancreatic Cancer in Rats. pic.twitter.com/F4GSpN8Ed7
— ★★★ Pamphlets ★★★ (@PamphletsY) January 28, 2026
The team says it's not yet ready to carry out clinical trials, but these results pave the way for that in the not too distant future, perhaps by next year.
