2025: Led by Lustgarten Powered by YOU

Progress in pancreatic cancer is built deliberately and relentlessly through strategy, persistence, and an unwavering focus on patients. In 2025, despite unprecedented challenges facing the biomedical research ecosystem, the Lustgarten Foundation continued to advance science, defend the broader research community, and mobilize a nationwide community united by one mission: transforming pancreatic cancer into a curable disease.

EARLY WINTER 2025: ALIGNING THE FIELD AROUND EARLY DETECTION

In January, the Lustgarten Foundation joined forces with the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) to convene a landmark 
Early Detection Workshop
focused on some of the most lethal and difficult-to-detect cancers. The meeting brought together leading experts across disciplines to confront the scientific, clinical, and regulatory barriers that continue to delay diagnosis. As a next step, Lustgarten, AACR, and the Mark Foundation jointly released a Request for Applications for new early detection research, offering funding to support bold, collaborative ideas.

The workshop reflected Lustgarten’s long-standing commitment to collaboration as a driver of progress in pancreatic cancer research. By expanding the conversation beyond a single disease, the partnership created space for shared learning and innovation across cancer types.

SPRING 2025: ACCELERATING THERAPEUTICS

Highlighted at this year’s  2025 AACR Annual Meeting, and throughout the year, KRAS-targeted therapies emerged as one of the most promising, fast-moving frontiers in pancreatic cancer research. Among  the most anticipated topics presented, researchers shared advanced new strategies to target KRAS mutations that drive more than 90% of pancreatic cancers.  Revolution Medicines’ daraxonrasib (RMC-6236) is currently the most advanced RAS inhibitor, being investigated in three phase 3 studies supported by positive results from early phase trials and funded in part by Lustgarten in partnership with Break Through Cancer.

This signals a critical shift, from viewing KRAS as undruggable to envisioning RAS inhibition as an essential piece to solving pancreatic cancer. For patients and families, this momentum represents real progress toward more effective, targeted therapies.

Lustgarten-supported projects continue to explore the mechanisms that are driving resistance to KRAS inhibitors in patients and developing strategies to overcome resistance, laying the groundwork for more durable responses.

SUMMER 2025: EMERGING IMMUNOTHERAPY MOMENTUM

This summer, Lustgarten-funded research demonstrated that immunotherapy is gaining real traction in pancreatic cancer. Early-phase results from Elicio Therapeutics’ KRAS-targeting vaccine showed robust immune responses in most patients with minimal residual disease, with stronger immune activation linked to improved outcomes. Building on this, Lustgarten, in partnership with Break Through Cancer, is supporting next-generation vaccine trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering led by Drs. Kevin Soares and Eileen O’Reilly, testing the approach earlier in treatment to understand how vaccines shape immune responses in tumors.

Meanwhile, Lustgarten-supported investigators are advancing multi-agent immunotherapy strategies, from exploring dual myeloid agonists to drive immune activity in metastatic disease to combining checkpoint inhibitors with investigational drugs to overcome stromal barriers and enhance T-cell response.

These studies highlight new ways to engage the immune system in a cancer type historically resistant to immunotherapy.

FALL 2025: DATA DRIVING DISCOVERY AND DECISIONS

Lustgarten-funded research delivered powerful proof that data-driven science is reshaping pancreatic cancer care. The publication of results of the PASS-01 clinical trial in the Journal of Clinical Oncology marked a defining moment for precision medicine, pairing the first randomized, head-to-head comparison of standard chemotherapies with real-time molecular profiling in patients with metastatic disease. Designed through unprecedented collaboration across leading institutions, PASS-01 applied a depth of genomic and translational analysis rarely used in pancreatic cancer clinical trials. By identifying basal-like and classical tumor subtypes and linking them directly to treatment response, the study demonstrated how genomic insight can guide therapy decisions and accelerate smarter, more efficient trials. Nearly half of patients who advanced to second-line treatment received care informed directly by the study’s data—clear evidence that precision approaches can deliver immediate, real-world patient impact.

We are finally seeing value and returns from data-driven decision-making in the treatment of pancreatic cancer – powering more personalized treatment today and redefining what is possible in pancreatic cancer clinical trials. 

THROUGHOUT 2025: BUILDING BREAKTHROUGHS

Unlocking Early Detection
Long-term investment is redefining what’s possible in pancreatic cancer early detection. By funding bold science, from mapping precancerous lesions to applying AI that uncovers tumors hidden in routine scans, Lustgarten-supported researchers are turning years of missed opportunity into actionable insight. This coordinated approach is laying the groundwork for true cancer interception, bringing earlier answers, smarter risk assessment, and the promise of longer lives within reach.

Standing up for Science
Scientific progress unfolded amid serious headwinds, including threats to federal research funding, clinical trial slowdowns, and heightened vulnerability for early-career investigators. Lustgarten responded with clarity and conviction.

Throughout the year, the Foundation emerged as a visible national voice for science – issuing public statements and advocacy efforts under the banners “Silence Won’t Save Science” and “Stand Up for Science,” and engaging with major media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, STAT, and CBS. Our leadership reinforced that advancing pancreatic cancer research requires both scientific innovation and unwavering advocacy for the broader scientific community.

Investing in the Future, For ALL
At Lustgarten, we pride ourselves on investing in the next generation of pancreatic cancer research and researchers, to improve outcomes for all patients. This year, we funded the first racially diverse pancreatic cancer atlas to address critical disparities, launched cutting-edge Clinical Accelerator Initiative trials testing novel immunotherapies and vaccines, and empowered early-career scientists through Career Development Awards – advancing bold, patient-focused science that brings hope and new treatment options to those who need it most.

GRATITUDE, RESOLVE, AND HOPE

To our researchers, donors, advocates, walkers, volunteers, and partners, thank you. Because of you, we move forward with greater urgency, deeper collaboration, and growing confidence in what science can deliver. Where we used to rely on hope, we now have tangible expectations for the current and future treatment of pancreatic cancer.  

The science is advancing. The community is mobilized. And the path forward is clearer than ever. Together, we will continue pushing toward earlier detection, better treatments, and faster progress – until this devastating disease is treatable and beatable.