KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers Johnson County. She also focuses on issues surrounding the cost of health care, saving for retirement and personal debt. Share your story idea with Elyse.
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Joe Paladino has lived with stage 4 pancreatic cancer for 11 years. He has endured surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, and more as his cancer has spread — but his outlook has never wavered.
"I try to keep smiling, I always say, pray, fight, smile, win," Paladino said. "I'm here because of the grace of God."
A new drug called daraxonrasib is offering hope to some patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. A new study, published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows the drug doubled the survival time of patients in its clinical trial.
"I do think it is definitely going to be the future of pancreatic cancer treatment," Dr. Marc Roth, St. Luke's medical director of gastrointestinal oncology, said.
Dr. Roth explained how the drug works with the makeup of pancreatic cancer.
"This drug was tested in pancreatic cancer because KRAS is a mutated protein that is present in almost 90% of pancreatic cancers. And so this mutant protein drives those cancer cells to grow and divide and spread to other organs. This drug stops that protein from functioning and tells the cell to stop dividing. So we've been able to stabilize those cancer cells, and in doing so, lead to longer periods of disease stability, and ultimately, what patients care most about, which is living longer," Roth said.
According to NBC News, the Food and Drug Administration has "already put the drug on a fast track toward approval for pancreatic cancer." The FDA also said it would allow Revolution Medicines to provide the drug to patients outside of clinical trials in an expanded access program.
Dr. Roth said the potential for success with daraxonrasib isn't limited to just pancreatic cancer.
"It's being evaluated in other types of cancer as well," he said. "KRAS is not only mutated in pancreatic cancer. We see it in colorectal cancer, lung cancer, too."
Dr. Roth encouraged patients to speak with their oncologists about molecular testing to determine whether they may qualify for the drug.
"Patients may not know that they have this mutation if they've never been tested," he said. "I would just encourage patients to ask about their molecular testing, ensure that they've had that, because that will give them the power to potentially be able to ask about trials or candidacy for drugs like this."
Paladino, who now spends as much time as he can with family and friends and in his garden, said he hopes his story inspires others facing the same diagnosis.
"I try and be an inspiration to the people that are battling this cancer," Paladino said. "I just hope people see this, and they'll just keep fighting."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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