Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)’s Groundbreaking Advances in Cancer Treatment

MSK presents research that could reshape what is possible for patients with four major cancers

Landmark findings in pancreatic, lung, liver, and prostate cancer mark one of MSK’s most significant contributions to cancer research in recent years

ABU DHABI, DUBAI, RIYADH, DOHA, 7^th July 2026. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) has announced significant research advances across four cancers where patients have long faced limited options.

The findings, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, the world’s largest gathering of cancer specialists, include the first drug to successfully target the genetic fault driving nine in ten pancreatic cancers, a major step forward in preventing lung cancer recurrence, and new options for patients with advanced liver and prostate cancer. For patients across the Gulf region, where these cancers carry a particularly high burden, the advances have direct relevance.

Pancreatic cancer has resisted almost every treatment advance of the past half century. A phase 3 trial led by MSK’s gastrointestinal medical oncologist Dr. Eileen O’Reilly suggests that may now be changing. The targeted drug daraxonrasib doubled how long patients with advanced disease survived compared with chemotherapy (13.2 months versus 6.7) and was far better tolerated. The drug works by blocking a genetic fault called a KRAS mutation, present in over 90% of pancreatic cancers, that scientists spent decades trying to target without success.

“To date in my career, I have not seen this level of benefit from any single anti-cancer drug in this disease,” says Dr. O’Reilly. MSK continues to enrol patients in clinical trials of daraxonrasib.

For lung cancer, the goal has long been to intervene before the disease spreads and a trial led by MSK’s Dr. Alexander Drilon shows how much difference that can make. Giving patients a targeted drug called selpercatinib after surgery cut the chance of their cancer returning from 39% to just 8%. The drug targets a specific genetic change that keeps cancer cells growing. Switching that signal off after surgery keeps far more patients disease-free at the point when treatment can still make a lasting difference. The finding is particularly significant for Gulf patients, where lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men and most cases are not found until the disease has already spread.

MSK’s Dr. Ghassan Abou-Alfa presented findings from the EMERALD-3 trial on a form of advanced liver cancer that cannot be removed surgically. Adding two immunotherapy drugs to chemoembolization, a procedure that delivers chemotherapy directly to the tumour while cutting off its blood supply, nearly doubled the time before the cancer progressed, from 8.2 months to 15 months. The procedure itself triggers an inflammatory response that the immunotherapy drugs then use to help the immune system attack the tumour. Liver cancer is more prevalent in the Gulf than in many Western countries partly because of higher rates of hepatitis B and C infection, which can lead to liver cancer over time.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men across the GCC. MSK’s Dr. Michael Morris presented findings on men with advanced prostate cancer whose disease had stopped responding to every available treatment. A new targeted radiation therapy called CONV01-alpha produced responses in 40% of these patients, with the benefit lasting up to 8 to 12 months and no kidney damage, which has been a concern with similar therapies. A larger trial is now being planned.

For patients in the Gulf with a complex diagnosis or those seeking a second opinion, MSK’s international patient services team can help coordinate care, including access to clinical trials.

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