ASCO 2026: pancreatic cancer breakthrough, head and neck cancer ‘jab’, treating bladder cancer without surgery, and more – Cancer Research UK
Every year, the world’s cancer researchers gather in Chicago for the biggest date in their calendar: the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting.
ASCO is where cancer scientists share their latest findings and discoveries, giving us all a glimpse of how preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer might change in the years to come.
Throughout the 2026 conference, Cancer Research UK’s experts were on hand to review some of the biggest and most interesting studies and announcements. We’ve gathered it all together in this article.
Daily pancreatic cancer pill shows “unprecedented” improvement in survival
A new targeted treatment can double the average survival time for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, according to an international phase 3 trial. It’s such a breakthrough, it drew a standing ovation from the ASCO crowd.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to stop. It grows quickly, resists traditional treatments and rarely causes clear symptoms until it reaches its later stages.
Scientists have spent a long time studying the biology of pancreatic cancer to find better ways to treat it. One big focus has been a group of genes in our cells called RAS genes, primarily one called KRAS. Mutations to these genes drive more than 9 out of 10 pancreatic cancers, but they’re very difficult to target.
“KRAS used to be considered undruggable, like nothing could touch it,” explained Dr Sam Godfrey, our science engagement lead. “It was a bit like a light that’s stuck on, with no actual switch to turn it off.”
Now, though, researchers have found a way to access the wiring.
In a 500-person trial, daraxonrasib, a daily pill designed to block the growth-powering proteins made by RAS genes, increased the average survival time for people with advanced, previously treated pancreatic cancer from 6.7 months to 13.2 months. The drug also caused fewer side effects than chemotherapy.
“Research has pretty much doubled survival rates across all cancers bar a few, but pancreatic cancer is one of those really stubborn cancers which has lagged behind,” said Godfrey, who called the results “unprecedented”.
“Anything which gives people more time when they have such an intractable, difficult-to-treat cancer is really, really exciting.”
Next, medicine regulators will need to evaluate the data to ensure daraxonrasib is suitable for use as a standard treatment.
“It’s quite hard to say how long that’s going to take, but with such strong results as this, I would hope the process will move fairly swiftly,” said Godfrey.
Triple-action ‘cancer jab’ clears out advanced head and neck cancers
Other new treatments are finding success by targeting cancer cells from multiple angles at once.
Amivantamab is one example. On the one side, it can block off two important switches cancers trigger to grow, spread and survive, and, on the other, it can help reveal cancer cells to the immune system.
The NHS already offers amivantamab, which is given as an injection, as a treatment for some lung cancers. Now, an international trial led by the Institute of Cancer Research in London has shown its potential for treating advanced head and neck cancer, too.
The OrigAMI-4 study gave amivantamab to 102 people with head and neck cancer that had spread or come back and wasn’t responding to other treatments. It shrank or eradicated 43 of those patients’ tumours.
“Treatment for head and neck cancer can have a profound impact on patients’ daily lives,” said Dr Sarah Halford, the head of medical sciences at Cancer Research UK’s Centre for Drug Development. “These results suggest this targeted treatment has the potential to offer a new option for some people whose cancer has stopped responding to standard care.
“Seeing tumours shrink in over 40% of patients – with no detectable signs of cancer in 15% – is encouraging. And importantly, this drug is given as a simple injection, making it quicker, more convenient, and potentially easier to tolerate.”
