Arturo Loaiza-Bonilla, Principal Investigator of a clinical trial evaluating next-generation RAS inhibitors at St. Luke’s University Health Network, shared on LinkedIn:
“Celebrating right after a trial Site Initiation Visit at St. Luke’s University Health Network Anderson Campus in Easton, among the sunflowers.
I am Principal Investigator of a clinical trial with the new generation of RAS inhibitors at St. Luke’s, and today the FDA approved the first one for pancreatic cancer: daraxonrasib (Rasonque) from Revolution Medicines.
More than 90% of pancreatic adenocarcinomas carry a RAS mutation. For over 40 years we called that target undruggable.
In RASolute 302, a once-daily oral RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibitor delivered a median overall survival of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months with chemotherapy in previously treated metastatic disease, HR 0.40 in RAS G12-mutant tumors. In this cancer, that is a different conversation with the patient sitting in front of you.
Sunflowers are native to the Americas. They grew on this continent thousands of years before they grew anywhere else.
That is not why I stopped for the photo, but it fits. Some things still happen only here: a company in California takes on a target most of the field had written off, the FDA approves it 6.5 months ahead of its deadline, and a community health network in the Lehigh Valley opens a trial with the next generation of these drugs so our patients do not have to drive to Philadelphia or New York for access to the science.
The second photo is me with a picture of the very first St. Luke’s, founded in Bethlehem in 1872, during the SIV at our Bethlehem campus.
The third is a selfie with the St. Luke’s of today. One hospital in 1872, 15 hospitals across Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 2026, and the same job: take care of the people around us with the best medicine that exists.
That last part is what I care about most. Science, AI and research do not have to live only in academic towers. At St. Luke’s University Health Network we run the trials. With Massive Bio we use AI to find the RAS mutation in the molecular report and match that patient to the right trial before the next visit. Trial matching, navigation, decision support. Infrastructure, not novelty.
To our research coordinators, pharmacy, pathology, nursing and every colleague who made these SIVs happen: thank you. This is how it gets done.
Proud to represent St. Luke’s University Health Network. St. Luke’s proud!”
