Post by Deep Sarkar

It was 2026 and the world felt loud. Wars. El Niño. Earthquakes. Every headline the same flavor of alarming. And in the quietest rooms, oncology kept working. Look at the visual below. Seven milestones. Seven rooms in the cancer fight. 1.Pancreatic cancer first because it is still the cruelest. In June at ASCO in Chicago, Dr Brian Wolpin presented the Phase 3 results for daraxonrasib, a drug from Revolution Medicines, in metastatic disease. Thirteen point two months median survival versus six point seven months on chemotherapy. Twice as long. Nine thousand oncologists stood up and stayed standing. People who spend their careers delivering bad news got to deliver a number worth applauding. Stay with pancreatic cancer for one more moment. In February Novocure got Optune Pax approved. A wearable device for the abdomen. First medical device ever cleared for this disease. Pair that with the BioNTech and Genentech personalized mRNA vaccine called autogene cevumeran. Six of eight immune responders still disease free at three years. The vaccine induced T cell clones carry an estimated half life of seven point seven years. 2.Lung cancer. Bayer's sevabertinib, brand name Hyrnuo, became the first targeted therapy ever approved in the United States for HER2 mutant non small cell lung cancer. Accelerated approval in late 2025. Breakthrough Therapy designation in the first line setting in January of this year. 3.Melanoma. Moderna and Merck reported five year follow up for intismeran autogene, a personalized mRNA vaccine given alongside Keytruda after surgery. Forty nine percent reduction in the risk of the cancer coming back. Fifty nine percent reduction in distant metastasis. Longest durability ever shown by a personalized cancer vaccine. 4.Sickle cell disease. The CRISPR therapy Casgevy from Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics is no longer a single dramatic headline. More than five hundred patients globally have begun the treatment journey. Forty three million dollars in Q1 2026. Half a billion dollar target for the year. The first gene editing cure is now an access story. 5.Multiple myeloma. Janssen's Darzalex Faspro with bortezomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone became a four drug frontline backbone approved January 27, 2026 for newly diagnosed patients not eligible for transplant. Subcutaneous. Administered at home. The standard of care shifted under everyone's feet. Before 2026. Metastatic pancreatic cancer median survival around six months. Melanoma vaccine durability unproven. CRISPR access lived in case reports. After 2026. Thirteen point two months on daraxonrasib. Five year recurrence free survival benefit of forty nine percent. Five hundred plus Casgevy journeys initiated. What a year it has been 2026