The Cancer That Kills Almost Everyone Just Met Its Worst Nightmare
Tango Therapeutics reported a 92% response rate in pancreatic cancer patients, a disease where second-line treatments barely crack 15%. The stock surged 53% in a single day, and Wall Street is calling the data "groundbreaking."
A 92% Response Rate in the Deadliest Cancer
Pancreatic cancer doesn't lose. It has a five-year survival rate hovering around 13%, the worst of any major cancer. Second-line treatments produce response rates in the single digits. Oncologists have spent decades throwing everything at it, and the tumor barely flinches.
So when Tango Therapeutics reported that 92% of pancreatic cancer patients responded to its experimental drug combination, the market did something rational for once: it freaked out.
Shares of Tango (TNGX) rocketed as much as 53% intraday on June 8, hitting an all-time high around $40.44 before settling near $31 at the close. Wolfe Research called the data "groundbreaking." Leerink Partners slapped a $69 price target on the stock. And somewhere, a lot of short sellers had a very bad Monday.
What Tango Actually Did
The results come from a Phase 1/2 trial (early-stage, small group of patients) testing a two-drug cocktail: vopimetostat, Tango's own drug, combined with daraxonrasib, a drug from Revolution Medicines. The combo was tested in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who had already failed prior treatments.
The numbers are almost hard to believe. Of 12 evaluable patients, 11 saw their tumors shrink. That's the 92% objective response rate. Disease was controlled in 100% of patients. And at the six-month mark, 90% of patients hadn't progressed, meaning the cancer hadn't grown back or spread. Median progression-free survival hasn't even been reached yet, which is science-speak for "we're still waiting to see how long this lasts because it's lasting longer than expected."
To understand how wild these numbers are, consider the context. When Tango tested vopimetostat alone in a similar patient group, the response rate was 25%. The combo nearly quadrupled it. Standard chemotherapy in second-line pancreatic cancer? You're lucky to crack 15%.
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The strategy here relies on a concept called synthetic lethality, which sounds like a sci-fi weapon but is actually an elegant biological trick. Think of it like knocking out two legs of a three-legged stool. Cancer cells can survive losing one critical function. But take away two related functions at the same time, and the whole thing collapses.
Vopimetostat is a PRMT5 inhibitor. It targets an enzyme that cancer cells depend on when they've lost a gene called MTAP (which happens in about 20–25% of pancreatic cancers). Losing MTAP is the first leg of the stool gone. Vopimetostat kicks out the second.
Daraxonrasib attacks from a completely different angle. It's a RAS inhibitor that goes after one of oncology's most notorious villains: the RAS protein. More than 90% of pancreatic cancers are driven by RAS mutations. For decades, RAS was considered "undruggable." Revolution Medicines finally found a way in.
Combining the two is like running a double screen in basketball. Each drug is good on its own. Together, the defense can't cover both.
A Second Combo, a Second Signal
Tango didn't stop at one combination. A parallel arm of the trial tested vopimetostat with zoldonrasib, another Revolution Medicines drug that targets a specific RAS mutation called G12D. In 27 pancreatic cancer patients, this combo produced a 52% response rate and a 96% disease control rate, with 74% of patients still progression-free at six months.
Those numbers are less jaw-dropping than the daraxonrasib combo, but they'd be headline-worthy on their own in pancreatic cancer. Having two promising combinations in the same trial gives Tango options and redundancy, which matters in a disease that's famously good at evolving resistance.
The Fine Print (Because There's Always Fine Print)
Before you mortgage the house on TNGX, some reality checks are in order.
First, 12 patients is tiny. Phase 1/2 data from small cohorts can look spectacular and then moderate significantly in larger trials. We've seen this movie before in oncology; the early numbers are the trailer, not the feature film.
Second, Tango announced a $500 million stock offering on the same day as the data. That's smart capital allocation (lock in the high share price, fund the Phase 3 trials), but it dilutes existing shareholders. Classic biotech playbook: celebrate the data, then pass the hat.
Third, the safety profile is manageable but real. Patients experienced rash, mouth sores, and diarrhea, consistent with what you'd expect from this type of drug cocktail. No Grade 4 or 5 treatment-related events were reported, which is encouraging for an early dataset.
The Road to Phase 3
Tango is wasting no time. The company plans to advance the vopimetostat plus daraxonrasib combination into a Phase 3 trial for previously untreated (first-line) MTAP-deleted pancreatic cancer. That's a big swing: moving from second/third-line patients who've already been through the wringer to newly diagnosed patients where the stakes, and the market, are much larger.
Separately, Tango is also planning a roughly 300-patient randomized pivotal trial of vopimetostat monotherapy in second-line pancreatic cancer, with progression-free survival and overall survival as the key endpoints. Both trials are expected to begin enrolling in 2026.
Why the Competitive Landscape Matters
Tango isn't operating in a vacuum. Its partner Revolution Medicines is arguably the hottest name in RAS-targeted oncology right now. Revolution's daraxonrasib already has positive Phase 3 data in second-line pancreatic cancer as a standalone therapy, showing a median overall survival of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months for chemotherapy. That's the kind of survival benefit that gets drugs approved.
Mirati (now part of Bristol-Myers Squibb) had been pursuing a different angle with MRTX1133, a KRAS G12D-specific inhibitor, but that program's Phase 1/2 trial was terminated in March 2025 after completing only Phase 1 due to formulation challenges.
Tango's edge is the combination approach. If PRMT5 inhibition genuinely supercharges RAS-targeted therapy (and the early data suggest it does), vopimetostat could become the preferred dance partner for an entire class of RAS drugs. The company is already testing combinations with Erasca's pan-RAS inhibitor, positioning vopimetostat as a platform, not just a single product.
The Bottom Line
A 92% response rate in pancreatic cancer is the kind of number that makes seasoned oncologists do a double take. It's early, it's small, and it needs to be confirmed in hundreds more patients. But the signal is loud, and the biological rationale is sound.
Pancreatic cancer has humbled better drugs than this. The history of the disease is littered with promising early results that fizzled in larger trials. But Tango has something most of those earlier attempts didn't: a precision medicine approach targeting specific genetic vulnerabilities, backed by a partner whose RAS drugs are already proving themselves in Phase 3.
If these results hold up, this won't just be good news for Tango's stock price. It could rewrite the treatment playbook for one of medicine's most stubborn killers.
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