A drug for pancreatic cancer shows immense promise, but we shouldn’t forget research in the field is a story of small victories

It is unlikely that we will ever declare a final victory over cancer. Governments have often promised it: from Nixon’s 1971 “war on cancer” to the 2016 Obama‑Biden plan to fight and cure it “once and for all” and Sajid Javid’s 2022 “war on cancer” initiative in the UK. But framing it this way can obscure how real progress is made: not in stunning routs, but in stalling and turning back the advance of this terrible condition – often in simply giving people more time to live.

Several such breakthroughs, and a bigger one that could transform the treatment of multiple kinds of cancer over the next decade, emerged at last week’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. As the Guardian revealed, there is a new jab effective against head and neck cancers in some patients, and a new immunotherapy that could spare bladder cancer patients invasive and life-changing surgery. Most significantly, there is a new drug called daraxonrasib, which doubled survival time for pancreatic cancer patients in a recent clinical trial.

Drug that stops cancer cells hiding and a breakthrough for pancreatic cancer among highlights from Asco conference – but there were also notes of caution

Doctors, scientists and researchers shared new research about ways to tackle cancer at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) annual meeting, the world’s largest cancer conference.

The event in Chicago, attended by 40,000 health professionals, featured more than 200 sessions and 2,700 poster presentations on this year’s theme, “the science and practice of translation: improving cancer outcomes worldwide”. Here are the five biggest takeaways.

Experts hail daraxonrasib as ‘gamechanger’ for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer

A daily pill can double survival time in patients with the world’s deadliest cancer, according to the results of a clinical trial that experts are saying is a “gamechanger” and one of the biggest breakthroughs in decades.

Currently, there are few treatments for pancreatic cancer, and most do little or nothing to help. For decades, scientists have worked relentlessly trying to find clever solutions for a form of cancer that is often found late. More than half of patients are only diagnosed after it has spread.

Study shows lower risk for multiple myeloma as well as pancreatic, prostate, breast and kidney cancers

Vegetarians have a substantially lower risk of five types of cancer, a landmark study on the role of diet has revealed.

The research, using data from more than 1.8 million people who were tracked over many years, found that vegetarians had a 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer, a 12% lower risk of prostate cancer and a 9% lower risk of breast cancer compared with meat eaters. Combined, these cancers account for around a fifth of cancer deaths in the UK.