New pancreatic cancer drug might open the door to much longer survival times

Post by dpark » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

LoganDark wrote: post #22

dpark wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems relevant here because the question was “How will this potentially help me if I get cancer?” and the answer is “Not at all unless you get a particular form of cancer that this applies to”. > Bacteria are also all different, but still they are "one thing", and despite their diversity, antibiotics exist that can deal with many species of them at once. Except people don’t ask “what if I get bacteria” the way the…

> Except people don’t ask “what if I get bacteria” the way they ask about cancer. Yeah, but doctors also don't tell people "you have bacteria" or claim "we found a cure for bacteria". The lack of nuance on average is largely due to a lack of nuance from experts. The media treats cancer as one big thing and bacteria and viruses as separate things. Thus the average joe inherits 'treating cancer as one big thing' from t…

Post by otabdeveloper4 » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 5:21 PM UTC

bad_username wrote: post #17

epistasis wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cancer is not one thing, it's a huge zoo of many many many ways that cells start to break the social contract and divide in an uncontrolled manner. One of the most commonly observed broken mechanisms is mutation in the gene KRAS that turns this on/off growth switch into the permanently on position. This has been known for decades, of course. And there have been huge amounts of effort to try to develop drugs that targ…

> Cancer is not one thing, I know this is a popular "well actually" to do, but it is not always useful in a conversation. Yes, all cancers are different, but yes, cancer is also one thing: unchecked, harmful division of cells. Bacteria are also all different, but still they are "one thing", and despite their diversity, antibiotics exist that can deal with many species of them at once. It is reasonable to talk about b…

Post by plmpsu » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 5:28 PM UTC

fhdkweig wrote: post #5

The relevant line is: "oncologists went wild over the results of a drug called daraxonrasib." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daraxonrasib

Post by fillskills » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 5:50 PM UTC

pdar4123 wrote: post #11

Please remember that science is under attack in the United States - new proposals would gut the nih even beyond the horror that is ongoing. As a scientist I am horrified and I truly hope that we don’t abandon the usas historically strong investment in the future.

Post by cogman10 » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 6:01 PM UTC

bruce511 wrote: post #23

bad_username wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cancer is not one thing, I know this is a popular "well actually" to do, but it is not always useful in a conversation. Yes, all cancers are different, but yes, cancer is also one thing: unchecked, harmful division of cells. Bacteria are also all different, but still they are "one thing", and despite their diversity, antibiotics exist that can deal with many species of them at once. It is reasonable to talk about b…

I understand where you are coming from here, but I think it is helpful for people to overtly grasp that there are very different cancers, very different treatments, and indeed very different outcomes. Without this understanding it becomes a quick jump from "we're spending all this money on cancer" to "we've made no progress" An example of the nuance plays out in the common cancers (like breast and prostrate). These h…