Every once in a while, an advance in treating cancer is so stunning that doctors get chills. Such is the case for Revolution Medicines’ pancreatic cancer therapy daraxonrasib, which in a late-stage study allowed patients with advanced disease to live twice as long as those who only received chemotherapy.

That’s an astounding advance for a cancer where experimental treatments have tended to offer progress measured in days or weeks, if at all. Giving patients and their families more months of time together — another birthday, another Christmas, a family reunion — would be truly meaningful.

It also lays a foundation for the entire field of researchers and drug developers to build from: What if instead of adding months to someone’s life, future progress allows doctors to realistically talk about years?

© The Japan Times