Revolution's Rasonque improves survival across subgroups in pancreatic cancer patients

Oct 23 (Reuters) - Revolution Medicines RVMD.O said on Friday its recently approved pancreatic cancer drug Rasonque improved overall survival in previously treated patients, regardless of whether they carried an RAS mutation that drives tumor growth.

Here are more details from data presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Madrid:

• Exploratory analyses showed Rasonque reduced the risk of death versus chemotherapy across all evaluated RAS subgroups by 39% to 68% in patients with RAS mutations and by 57% in those with no identified RAS mutation

• RAS mutations drive tumor ​growth and are found in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases

• The analysis was based on a late-stage study enrolling 500 previously treated patients, 248 of whom received Rasonque and 252 chemotherapy

• The once-daily pill won speedy US approval in August to treat metastatic pancreatic cancer in patients who had received prior treatment or could not receive combination chemotherapy

• Analyses showed Rasonque improved overall survival compared with several standard chemotherapy regimens

• Improvement in overall survival was also seen in previously treated patients, including those whose cancer spread within six months of earlier therapy and those who had received one prior treatment for metastatic disease