By Rebecca Afolabi
Scientists may have unlocked a promising new pathway in the fight against pancreatic cancer following the success of an experimental drug combination that wiped out tumours in laboratory animals.
Researchers at Spain’s National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have developed a novel three-drug treatment that eradicated pancreatic cancer in mice, raising hopes that the notoriously deadly disease could one day be brought under control.
Details of the breakthrough, published in the scientific journal PNAS, show that the therapy targets mutations in the KRAS gene — a defect found in roughly nine out of every ten pancreatic cancer cases. When altered, KRAS becomes an oncogene, forcing cells to multiply uncontrollably and driving tumour growth.
For decades, KRAS has frustrated cancer scientists. Existing drugs that attempt to block the gene often fail as cancer cells quickly adapt, allowing the disease to continue spreading. The CNIO team took a different approach: instead of attacking KRAS through a single pathway, they shut down three critical survival mechanisms at once.
By cutting off multiple escape routes simultaneously, the triple-drug strategy prevents cancer cells from adapting, growing, or developing resistance — a finding that supports the idea that pancreatic cancer may require combination therapies rather than single-drug treatments.
Led by renowned cancer biologist Dr Mariano Barbacid, the researchers tested the therapy across three distinct mouse models: genetically engineered mice born with pancreatic cancer mutations; mice implanted with human pancreatic tumour tissue; and mice injected directly with pancreatic cancer cells.
In every case, the treatment eliminated the cancer entirely. Based on these results, the scientists believe the findings are robust enough to guide the design of future clinical trials involving human patients.
In their paper, the team wrote that the study “opens the door to new combination treatment strategies that could significantly improve survival rates for patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma,” the most common form of the disease. They added that the results provide a clear foundation for upcoming clinical trials.
Despite the encouraging outcome, the researchers acknowledged important limitations. The mice involved were mostly young and healthy — unlike many pancreatic cancer patients — and the results have not yet been replicated in humans. Even so, the discovery has been widely welcomed as a major scientific advance.
Spain’s government also hailed the achievement. The Spanish Embassy in the UK shared the news on social media, describing the research as a landmark moment that could reshape the battle against one of the world’s deadliest cancers.
Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most lethal forms of the disease, with no known cure and a five-year survival rate of just over 10 percent. Its danger lies in how aggressively it spreads, invading nearby organs, blocking bile and intestinal ducts, and metastasizing to the liver, lungs, and abdomen — often leading to organ failure.
The pancreas plays a vital role in digestion and hormone production, including insulin and glucagon, which regulate blood sugar. When cancer disrupts these functions, patients may experience unstable glucose levels alongside symptoms such as jaundice, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, nausea, fever, diarrhoea, and constipation.
According to recent studies, more than half of patients diagnosed with the world’s least treatable cancers — including pancreatic, lung, liver, brain, stomach, and oesophageal cancers — die within a year of diagnosis.
In the UK alone, over 10,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer annually. More than half do not survive beyond three months, largely because early detection tests do not exist and around 80 percent of cases are only discovered after the cancer has already spread.
While human trials are still ahead, scientists say this discovery could mark a turning point — offering a long-awaited glimpse of hope against a disease that has long defied modern medicine.
