When hearing the words “pancreatic cancer,” many people don’t automatically think of positive outcomes. But a new drug could soon help improve the quality of life for people living with the disease.
Daraxonrasib, also known as Rasonque, is an experimental drug that can be prescribed for adults with metastatic pancreatic cancer. It was approved by the FDA on Aug. 26. According to Dr. Naomi Fei, an assistant clinical professor at the University of Iowa School of Medicine’s hematology and oncology division, one pivotal study showed Daraxonrasib doubled the median overall survival rate of patients with Stage IV pancreatic cancer who are also undergoing chemotherapy. That’s a crucial improvement, as most people who receive a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer are already at Stage IV when the disease is discovered. Currently, the average life expectancy for a patient with just chemotherapy is about six months to a year.
“It does improve survival, but it does not offer a cure at this time,” said Fei. “If the patient is fortunate enough to have a manageable disease burden at the time of drug initiation, then the quality of life may be sustained. However, there are very real side effects to contend with.” These include fatigue, nausea and vomiting, a rash, and diarrhea.
Fei said more than 95% of pancreatic cancer patients have a genetic mutation known as a KRAS driver mutation. She said she is hopeful that Daraxonrasib and other advancing treatments designed to target KRAS mutations will someday become dominant in treatment and management of the disease.
Wayne Brimeyer of Viola, Ill., is a patient of Dr. Fei’s. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June of 2021. While he’s already defied the odds of the disease after living with it for more than five years now, he also recently learned he is a candidate for Daraxonrasib.
“Pancreatic cancer will build a protective shell around itself,” he explained. “And it’s very, very difficult to get through that shell to get to the cancer, which is why a lot of chemos don’t work very well. What this drug does is it interrupts that process to build that shell. It interferes with it, so it doesn’t get completed. So, there’s now holes in that shell where chemo can get in, and the body’s defenses can get in.”
Fei told Wayne and his wife, Tara, that the drug can also help prevent what are known as “downstream mutations” in the disease, which cause resistance to chemotherapy and other treatments. When used in conjunction with chemotherapy, Daraxonrasib could allow treatments to work more effectively for a longer period of time. There’s currently a clinical trial underway exploring the connection between the drug and chemotherapy.
While all of this news is exciting, it’s also bittersweet for Peggy Ohl of Eldridge. Her husband, Dr. Brent Ohl, passed away in 2016, following a four-and-a-half-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She recently learned, based on information from the pathology report on Brent’s tumor, he could have been a candidate for Daraxonrasib if it had been available then.
“It’s bittersweet, but it’s wonderful for everybody else, everybody diagnosed now and going forward,” she said. “Just aiming to make more breakthroughs like this makes me happy.
“It’s not a cure, and it’s not for everybody, but it is hopeful,” Peggy continued. “Which is not something that people necessarily think of when they hear ‘pancreatic cancer’ – hopeful and promising.”
“The word cancer implies death,” said Wayne. “It’s a death sentence. This one especially.”
‘A different world’
Thinking back to when he was first diagnosed, Wayne and Tara said they could not have imagined that such an advancement would come, and that it would come about relatively quickly.
“When he was first diagnosed, the doctor told us he had a year,” said Tara. “When you think about it, I should have been a widow over four years ago.”
“She basically told me, go home, make your plans,” said Wayne.
“It definitely feels like a whole new world,” said Tara. “It’s a different world because the doctors are actually cheerier now.”
“They like having multiple options that they can try,” said Wayne.
“You can tell a difference even in our doctor visits and how they’re talking to you,” continued Tara. “You can tell in their voice that they feel the hope, because they’ve seen so much that people weren’t surviving. So yeah, it’s even on their end you can tell a difference.”
“It is a little frustrating though, because it’s not a cure,” said Wayne. “This drug helps, and the other things coming down the line help, but they’re still not looking at it as a cure. They’re looking at this stuff as, OK, we’re extending quality of life; we’re extending the life a little bit more. It’s just stop-gap measures.”
One of the difficulties of pancreatic cancer is that there is no screener test, and the symptoms often present as other common diseases. Some symptoms include abdominal or back pain, unintended weight loss, digestive changes, fatigue and weakness, new onset diabetes and blood clots. This can lead to missed diagnoses or the symptoms being dismissed as things like gas or ulcerative colitis.
In Wayne’s case, “they thought maybe it was his gallbladder,” explained Tara. “Then it was, ‘Well, you have an infection.’ Which he did, but the cancer caused the infection.”
Wayne said he got somewhat lucky though, because a gastroenterologist suspected pancreatic cancer, but was unable to initially locate it through testing. “He made a mark on my file, and it was one of the things that led us down the road to Iowa City to where they started looking for it more seriously,” Wayne said. “They didn’t find it until after they did the surgery, but I think it kind of kept them from going off on wild tangents too much. I mean, they were checking everything, but they didn’t go down those rows and just dismiss it, because he had made that note in my file.”
After undergoing chemotherapy since his diagnosis, Wayne and Tara said they’re encouraged by the possibility of a new treatment option since learning Wayne is a candidate for Daraxonrasib.
“He’s kind of been stuck in limbo when they were doing trials,” said Tara. One of the difficulties was that initial trials were not being done on patients who had been diagnosed as Stage IV.
“But then, at Stage IV trials, you have to have active disease,” explained Tara. “As of the first trial in March of 2022, Wayne had no evidence of disease. Basically, they kept him on maintenance chemo, but they couldn’t find any evidence of disease. So, that took him out of being eligible for any trial, because they couldn’t measure anything.”
But now that the drug has been approved for use and Wayne is a candidate, he and Tara said it’s nice to have another option.
“I’ve been doing chemo for either a full regimen or a modified regimen for five-and-a-half-years, almost. I think we’re right at about 130 treatments, going to Iowa City every two weeks.”
Becoming an advocate
Following his diagnosis, Wayne and Tara got to know Peggy Ohl through the Ohl Strong Foundation. Peggy formed the foundation in honor of Brent.
The Ohl Strong Foundation is different from many other cancer charities, in that the funds don’t go to support research. Rather, all the money raised goes to help patients and their families. The only requirements for support are that the patient must have a documented case of pancreatic cancer, and they must live within a 75-mile radius of the UnityPoint Rock Island Hospital. Designated contacts are available at the UnityPoint Cancer Center, the Genesis Cancer Center and the University of Iowa Cancer Center. Patients receive $500 Visa gift cards, which can be used however they choose.
Wayne said the support he’s gotten from the Ohl Strong Foundation has been “tremendous,” adding that foundation members have become like another kind of family.
“You don’t feel so alone,” said Tara. “Especially when we meet the other patients and recipients or family. Then it’s kind of like, OK, I don’t feel like I’m on an island by myself, navigating something that I have no clue what to do because no one teaches you.
“It definitely does help you get connected with people that are in the same boat as you are.”
“So many groups out there, they raise money, and they turn the money in for cancer research and stuff,” said Wayne. “And that’s great and everything, but the one thing that struck us about Ohl Strong is that they actually help the patients. And that focus on being there for the patients is what really drew us to Peggy and her crew. And then to be able to take part and share in it – like I said, it’s like the family outside of our family. It’s the family you choose versus the family you’re thrown into, which makes it even more special.”
Peggy said the Brimeyers have “been here unconditionally for four years probably. You come to every meeting and contribute. You didn’t drop away and you’re battling your own very serious health condition.”
She said Wayne frequently speaks with patients and family members at the Ohl Strong events. “He makes connections with them and keeps in touch with some of these people, and that means the world to them.”
“To me, the big focus is getting the recipients and their families to talk to each other, to share that experience and kind of be their own little support network,” said Wayne. “Trying to be able to facilitate that is huge. Because otherwise the only time we see anybody is in a cancer support group, which could be multiple cancers or it could be all pancreatic, or it could be a Zoom meeting, so they’re not really personal.”
Among the families who plan to attend this year’s Ohl Strong event on Oct. 24 are Miguel Garcia’s daughters, including Martha Garcia-Tappa.
Miguel died at age 86 in March after an extremely brief battle with pancreatic cancer. He was sent to Iowa City after experiencing jaundice, underwent surgery in December of 2025, and the family learned of his diagnosis in January.
“It was fast,” said Martha. “And my dad had a lot of life.”
This wasn’t the family’s first experience with cancer – Martha and her sister have both had thyroid cancer and Miguel also survived prostate cancer – but the diagnosis was both shocking and devastating.
“When we went up to Iowa City on Jan. 15, it was me, my oldest son and my dad in the room, and they told us he had inoperable pancreatic cancer, and the only option was we could try chemo. And I was like, that can’t be right. Because we beat cancer. My family has always beaten cancer.”
Martha described her dad as “a pretty incredible person” who had an outsized impact on his family. Miguel came to the Quad Cities in 1964 from Mexico to work for John Deere. He and his wife, whom he married in 1966, raised four daughters. “All of us four girls were first-generation college graduates, and we have our master’s degrees,” said Martha. “Dad’s dream was to make a life here, become an American citizen, educate his daughters and start our life here. He taught us to be hard workers.” She said when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, her dad never left her side.
“He wasn’t ready to die,” said Martha. “He still had so much more to do.”
When the family received the information packet on the Ohl Strong Foundation, Martha said the family was “so appreciative. We were so shocked and dumbfounded about Dad’s diagnosis, because we weren’t prepared to lose him. These people from this organization so kindly lifted us up.
“When you’re stricken with such a horrible disease and you don’t know where to turn, and then you open up this envelope, it’s like, there’s people out there who care,” said Martha. “There are people out there who know how painful this disease is and how it can affect a family, emotionally and physically. You never want to see anybody that you love so much go through it, but a little bit can go a long way. A little bit of caring that these outside organizations take upon themselves because they understand what this does to a family.”
Martha said she’s grateful to Ohl Strong for raising awareness of the disease and the impact of families, and, as she’s a believer in paying it forward, she encourages everyone to support the organization. “I hope that other families see the value of such an organization, not just the history of what that family went through, but what they did to turn it around and help other people.”
‘I need to be there’
Peggy said Wayne is also an inspiration. The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is just 3% of all patients. “He is the 3%, right here.”
Wayne said the thing that keeps him going the most is his family.
“I’ve got two boys – one is 23 and the other will be 20 next month. And a little girl, she just turned 12. And I need to walk her down the aisle. I need to be there for that. That and us sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch when we’re 80 years old. I keep that picture in my mind, too. I just keep those in mind, and I keep fighting for it.
“There’s no other choice. I mean, the only other option is to give up. I’m not doing that. I’m a little too stubborn.”