One of the Deadliest Cancers in America May Have Met Its Match artwork
Plain English with Derek Thompson

One of the Deadliest Cancers in America May Have Met Its Match

May 5, 2026 · 45 min

Hard to detect and almost impossible to treat, pancreatic cancer has long been one of medicine’s most ruthless killers. For decades, it’s been the cancer that science couldn’t crack. But that might be starting to change. Recently, cancer researchers have announced a series of breakthroughs that, taken together, sound almost too good to be true: a drug that targets the “undruggable” gene behind mo…