How pan­cre­at­ic RAS tu­mors pro­tect them­selves. Re­searchers point to a new pro­tein — and maybe a new treat­ment

A cou­ple years back, some car­dio­vas­cu­lar spe­cial­ists at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hos­pi­tal stum­bled across a sur­pris­ing re­sult.

No­var­tis had tasked them with car­ry­ing out the long-range Phase III tri­al for canakinum­ab, an ex­per­i­men­tal an­ti-in­flam­ma­to­ry drug the com­pa­ny was try­ing to mar­ket for car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease. The main re­sults were mixed — mod­est re­duc­tions in fa­tal car­dio­vas­cu­lar events, clear side ef­fects — but an ad­di­tion­al, ex­plorato­ry analy­sis, turned heads over in on­col­o­gy: Across 10,061 pa­tients, those who had re­ceived canakinum­ab were less like­ly to de­vel­op lung can­cer; 33% less like­ly for the high­est dosage.

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