Taking on the RAS Challenge
Research news (Oct 8, 2026) from the US National Cancer Institute highlights decades of federally funded work that helped convert RAS—implicated in roughly one-third of cancers and >90% of pancreatic cancers—from an “undruggable” target to one with multiple inhibitors. The piece cites FDA approval of sotorasib (2021) and accelerated approval of adagrasib (2022) for KRAS G12C–mutant NSCLC, and describes newer, broader-acting RAS inhibitors (e.g., daraxonrasib) and additional investigational agents in clinical trials.
Taking on the RAS Challenge (research news)
Date: Oct 8, 2026
The US National Cancer Institute (NCI) summarized progress against RAS-driven cancers, noting that mutations in RAS family genes help drive roughly a third of all cancers, including >90% of pancreatic cancers. The article describes why RAS was long considered “undruggable,” citing its relatively smooth protein surface, and outlines how decades of basic research elucidated RAS structure and function as a GDP/GTP-regulated molecular switch.
A cited scientific inflection point was a 2013 Nature report describing a previously hidden pocket in mutant KRAS and a molecule shown to be effective against a mutant-KRAS cancer cell line.
NCI also highlighted its RAS Initiative (launched in 2013) as a coordinating hub that has generated structural/biochemical data, assays, and shared reagents, and that co-discovered investigational compounds now in clinical trials: BBO-8520, BBO-11818, and BBO-10203.
The item references regulatory milestones but is not itself an approval announcement. It notes the FDA approved sotorasib (May 2021) for KRAS G12C–mutant NSCLC, and granted accelerated approval to adagrasib (Dec 2022) for locally advanced or metastatic KRAS G12C–mutant NSCLC. It also states that newer inhibitors such as daraxonrasib (targeting multiple RAS mutations) have shown effectiveness against metastatic pancreatic cancer, without providing trial details.