In this episode of The Cancer Letter Podcast, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, and Jacquelyn Cobb, managing editor, discuss promising developments in cancer research and the growing prominence of cancer as an election issue in Iowa.
This episode is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
Jacquelyn’s conversation with Kevan Shokat, the pioneering chemist whose work helped transform the once undruggable KRAS protein into a therapeutic target, took the stage in this episode. Shokat won the 2026 Stephenson Global Prize for his discovery.
“[Kevan Shokat] was very much like a celebrity to me. He made KRAS druggable… He made the undruggable druggable, so it was this big exciting thing. And then I talked to him, and it was such a great, awesome, cool conversation,” Jacquelyn said. “He won the [Stephenson] prize, and so that basically gave me an excuse to give a roundup of what the state of RAS, KRAS specifically, research is looking like right now, which has blown up ever since daraxonrasib had the really great results.”
It was when Shokat and his team looked at the KRAS problem as a chemistry problem rather than a biology problem, that they were able to crack the code.
“He has a really cool quote there where he’s like, ‘Once we figured out that it was a chemistry problem, I knew it was going to work. We just had to figure out how,’” Jacquelyn said.
Meanwhile, cancer is becoming an increasingly prominent political issue. Iowa has ranked second in the nation for new cancer cases for three consecutive years, and incidences are rising faster than in any other state. Politicians and policymakers are taking notice.
“It’s kind of that political cliche, as Iowa goes, so goes the nation,” Paul said. “Unfortunately, it’s not true when it comes to cancer statistics, because as national cancer numbers are receding slowly, Iowas are increasing for whatever reason. And the interesting story here is that cancer suddenly became a huge political issue. It’s the first question asked at political debates during the midterms, and that’s really the story. What does it mean? People care about oncology, they do. Well, nationally, look, the administration tried to cut NIH budget severely, including NCI budget, and it failed, and it seems to have kind of recognized its failure, so perhaps hands off.”
Jacquelyn and Paul talk about how cancer is shaping electoral conversations in Iowa, and what that could mean for cancer policy.
Stories mentioned in this podcast include:
- Kevan Shokat made KRAS druggable. With daraxonrasib now in the clinic, he is “all in” on the ultimate target: p53
- Dostarlimab becomes first FDA-approved immunotherapy for locally advanced rectal cancer Patients now have an alternative to the brutal, life-altering standard of care
- Iowa’s “cancer crisis” emerges as a top issue on the campaign trail
- California’s Prop 38 is an historic approach to funding medical research, immunology The $8.4B bond makes a long-term investment in a field with life-saving power
- National Academy of Medicine announces new members for 2027 The list includes Anthony Letai, Kathleen Burns, William Frist, Roy Herbst, Ross Levine, Fred Ramsdell, Dennis Slamon, Elizabeth Swisher, Albert Koong, Charles Roberts
This episode was transcribed using transcription services. It has been reviewed by our editorial staff, but the transcript may be imperfect.
The following is a transcript of this week’s In the Headlines, a weekly series on The Cancer Letter Podcast:
Jacquelyn Cobb: This week on The Cancer Letter Podcast…
Especially because Shokat is a chemist, and he has this really cool quote where he said once he sort of figured it out, and he had this aha moment, which was more of a rollercoaster than just a moment, he realized, “I made this.” Or we, his team, made this a chemistry problem rather than a biology problem, and that therefore broke open. He has a really cool quote there where he’s like, “Once we figured out that it was a chemistry problem, I knew it was going to work. We just had to figure out how.”
Paul Goldberg: You’re listening to the Cancer Letter Podcast. The Cancer Letter is a weekly independent magazine covering oncology since 1973. I’m your host, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter.
Jacquelyn Cobb: And I’m your host, Jacquelyn Cobb, managing editor of The Cancer Letter. We’ll be bringing you the latest stories, groundbreaking research, and critical conversations shaping oncology.
Paul Goldberg: So let’s get going.
Hi, Jacquelyn. How are you?
Jacquelyn Cobb: I’m good. How are you?
Paul Goldberg: I am great. I’m here in Chicago.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah. Where are you? This is a very nice view, very chic.
Paul Goldberg: Oh, yeah. I’m at a hotel at Marriott. I’m at the AACI meeting, which is one of my favorite meetings because it’s sort of like, imagine… Can you imagine the ASCO and AACR president’s receptions, except they last for three days?
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah, that’s-
Paul Goldberg: That’s really what it is. It’s like you run into all the folks you want to run into. Of course, I mean, I still like ASCO and AACR a lot, but-
Jacquelyn Cobb: Of course, yeah.
Paul Goldberg: … this is just really fun, and-
Jacquelyn Cobb: Very dense fun.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah. And last night a bunch of us went to a Ukrainian restaurant, the Ukrainian village called Tryzub, where you’ve been.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yes. I love that place.
Paul Goldberg: Tryzub is fabulous, and it is not a sponsor of this podcast.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Sadly. Wish it was.
Paul Goldberg: No, no, no, no, no.
Jacquelyn Cobb: I do. Are you kidding? That-
Paul Goldberg: We don’t want them as a sponsor. I think it’s much more honest to recommend that place, T-R-Y-Z-U-B, if they’re not a sponsor of this podcast.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Okay. Okay.
Paul Goldberg: You see, I don’t want to be conflicted.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah. You want to be able to recommend without any worries. I understand.
Paul Goldberg: Right.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Very important stuff here.
Paul Goldberg: A lot of vodka, was drunk. Well, you remember, they have great-
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yes, I do.
Paul Goldberg: … flavored vodka. Again, they’re not a sponsor of this podcast. But next time you’re in Chicago-
Jacquelyn Cobb: Now we’re getting into alcohol, that’s just-
Paul Goldberg: … say The Cancer Letter sent you, and they won’t give you a discount.
Jacquelyn Cobb: At the risk of taking us even further off-topic, do you remember what the flavors were? They have really cool flavors, so do-
Paul Goldberg: Yeah. We usually get a bunch.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah. Okay.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah. I do remember-
Jacquelyn Cobb: My-
Paul Goldberg: … what they were.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah?
Paul Goldberg: Of course I remember what they were.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Well, I’m curious. Tell me. You’re like, “I’m-“
Paul Goldberg: Horseradish was a crowd pleaser. Cherry is always very good.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Very nice.
Paul Goldberg: Infused. And then we also did pepper, and then there was also something… I don’t remember what the other one was. I was concentrating on-
Jacquelyn Cobb: You were-
Paul Goldberg: Well, they’re a little more sweet than I like some of them, but it was good, it was good, it was good.
Jacquelyn Cobb: I feel like that’s why I like them so much, honestly. I like the sweeter stuff.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah. Yeah, we did get you schnockered there.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But it was the horseradish, weirdly, the not sweet one, but it had a little something. But it was my first introduction to horseradish vodka, and I enjoyed it. Let’s just leave it at that.
Paul Goldberg: Well, welcome to the Horseradish Letter Podcast.
Jacquelyn Cobb: But we’re not sponsored.
Paul Goldberg: We’re not sponsored, but… And we don’t want to be sponsored by Tryzub.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Well, we’re sponsored, but not by Tryzub, yes.
Paul Goldberg: We can recommend it.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yes. Let me take us through last week’s headlines to get us off vodka. We had a really… For me, it was personally very exciting. I’m sure we’ll get into it in the podcast, but we had a story about Kevan Shokat, who won the second Stephenson Global Prize for pancreatic cancer research. I’ll just get into it a little bit before diving in full detail, but it was very exciting for me, because I had covered this space, and I’d heard his name, and it’s such a distinctive… Kevan Shokat, it’s such a star-studded name.
Paul Goldberg: They’re making you sound French.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah, I know. I’m putting an accent on it.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah.
Jacquelyn Cobb: He was very much like a celebrity to me. He made KRAS druggable, he broke through the… He made the undruggable druggable, so it was this big exciting thing. And then I talked to him, and it was such a great, awesome, cool conversation. So I’ll dive into more details about that, but he won the prize, and so that basically gave me an excuse to give a roundup of what the state of RAS, KRAS specifically, research is looking like right now, which has blown up ever since daraxonrasib had the really great results.
So anyway, I’m getting too deep in, but our story two was another really exciting clinical story, dostarlimab, which was a huge story a few years ago, actually. It’s a checkpoint inhibitor that for certain locally advanced rectal cancer patients, it allows them to completely forego the standard of care, which is incredibly brutal. It’s chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, and that can lead to a colostomy bag, infertility. There’s all of these really life-altering consequences from that treatment that can be curative, so it’s sort of always been this really hard decision for patients. Again, it’s unfortunately a small subset of patients, this immunotherapy works well enough in, again, locally advanced rectal cancer to allow them to avoid it. And so we did a whole series on that when the data came out, but now they received FDA approval for that indication, so very exciting.
Our third story was a story about the midterm elections in Iowa, and how oncology and cancer care has become really a central point in that race. I’ll let Paul talk about that more, but our sponsored article…
Paul Goldberg: Well, yeah.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Oh, you want to go? Jump in. Go for it.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah, let’s talk about it a little bit, because it’s kind of that political cliche, as Iowa goes, so goes the nation. Unfortunately, it’s not true when it comes to cancer statistics, because as national cancer numbers are receding slowly, Iowas are increasing for whatever reason. And the interesting story here is that cancer suddenly became a huge political issue. It’s the first question asked at political debates during the midterms, and that’s really the story. What does it mean? People care about oncology, they do. Well, nationally, look, the administration tried to cut NIH budget severely, including NCI budget, and it failed, and it seems to have kind of recognized its failure, so perhaps hands off.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s the-
Paul Goldberg: Hands off. Yeah.
Jacquelyn Cobb: I was just going to say another cliche that at least at The Cancer Letter is: Cancer is a bipartisan issue.
Paul Goldberg: We don’t use cliches.
Jacquelyn Cobb: No, we never do. But no, cancer is a bipartisan issue. Cancer doesn’t care which party you’re in. Everybody cares. I’ve seen that, at least in my coverage. But yeah, it’s very sad and troubling. Iowa has ranked second in the nation for new cancer cases for three consecutive years, and its cancer incidence rate is rising faster than that of any other state. We have this effect that’s happening, and now the state is sort of grappling with how to address that from a political lever, or from the political levers that are available. I feel like we don’t always have sort of a… I mean, we have lots of political stories, but not so neat, I guess.
Paul Goldberg: Local.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah, local. Yeah, thank you. And then, Paul, I might actually ask you-
Paul Goldberg: We should do more. We should do more.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Well, speaking of, we have our perspective piece was about California’s Prop 38. Do you want to talk about that at all, or am I putting you on the spot, Paul? Sorry.
Paul Goldberg: No. Well, you should look… It’s a great piece. It’s great to have it. So it’s essentially a CPRIT-like structure that is bond issue, state bond issue to fund immunotherapy research, so immunology research. So it’s a good piece. It’s a good op-ed.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah. To be more specific, Prop 38 I guess might be a little bit casual, but it’s Proposition 38. It’s called the Immunology Medical Research & Cures Initiative, and it’s on the California ballot this November. It’s an $8.4 billion bond. So to quote Aries Belldegrun, who is the author of the piece and a founder of Kite Pharmaceuticals, he’s now at Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, he says, “The $8.4 billion bond represents the opportunity to make a long-term investment at precisely the moment when a field with proven lifesaving power is poised to do much more.” And I know I’m drawing all these lines or whatever, I always do this, but the immunotherapy, this excitement about immunotherapy is very much supported by the dostarlimab story, which is about an immunotherapy. Dostarlimab is immunotherapy, so all comes together.
And then the last story that we had was the National Academy of Medicine new members, which included Anthony Latai, which is exciting for us, Kathleen Burns, William Frist, Roy Herbst, Ross Levine, et cetera, et cetera. Even our subhead is very long, and the story is even longer, so can definitely take a skim to see who’s in there, but we have the oncology related ones even loosely all in there. Do we-
Paul Goldberg: Yeah.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah, go ahead.
Paul Goldberg: As the guy who gets to go through that list, I really question my own methodology, because what is oncology related and what is not? And what do you do with virology?
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yes. Yeah.
Paul Goldberg: You use it, you put it in, but the list keeps growing wider and wider, which is kind of an interesting thing about the maturity of the field. And it’s a lot of fun to look at these names of these absolutely incredible distinguished people, some of whom happen to be friends. So it’s just nice. It’s just very nice to see it.
Jacquelyn Cobb: It is cool.
Paul Goldberg: Just to kvell over their achievements, and the huge honor.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I’m thinking what I would like to do is to just chat a little bit about daraxonrasib. Dostarlimab and daraxonrasib in one podcast is kind of a lot for these names. But daraxonrasib, which is not an immunotherapy, that one is a targeted therapy for… Or actually it’s RAS, but it was… The thought was to go after KRAS mutations in pancreatic cancer.
And so the only thing I just want to say about that story beyond my really exciting conversation with Dr. Shokat is that it was a really nice opportunity to sort of conglomerate some previous podcasts that I actually had done, podcast from earlier in this year in August. I had had really, really wonderful conversations with Dr. Brian Wolpin, who was the principal investigator, or one of the principal investigators on the RASolute 302 trial, which is the trial that… The phase III trial of daraxonrasib in pancreatic cancer patients that sort of sparked all of this excitement. And with Frank McCormick, who is the inaugural winner of the Stephenson Global Prize, so he won it last year, and he’s one of the ones who kind of talked up Dr. Shokat.
It was a really, really cool conversation, sort of just to see how this subfield of oncology works together, and kind of interacts, especially because Shokat is a chemist, and he has this really cool quote where he said once he sort of figured it out, and he had this aha moment, which was more of a roller coaster than just a moment, but you can go read the story for that, he realized, “I made this…” Or we, his team, made this a chemistry problem rather than a biology problem, and that therefore broke open. He has a really cool quote there where he’s like, “Once we figured out that it was a chemistry problem, I knew it was going to work. We just had to figure out how.”
So it was a really cool story, and also just really fun, cool little behind the scenes of how he works. He explained how he has a ledger of open questions that he’s working on, and a list of chemical structures that might help. I might be butchering that. Let me get that up directly from it. Yeah, here we go, “The way I do things, I have a list of problems or challenges, and I have a list of chemistry solutions, and I just try to run them like a slot machine until they both come up at the same time, and then that just clicked.” Which is just so cool to see how… Especially considering now many years out from his discovery, seeing the clinical impact of this chemical puzzle that he did. I just got to nerd out. Once again, I had a moment of feeling very grateful that The Cancer Letter lets me be such a nerd.
Paul Goldberg: Oh my God. We love it. We all love it.
Jacquelyn Cobb: We love it. Yeah.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah. Yeah. It’s just really the greatest job in the world, I think, mine. And yours, I hope you feel the same way, but I do.
Jacquelyn Cobb: I do. Yes, yes.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah. It’s just fun.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Especially when I get to write this type of stuff. I have my weaker points of reporting, but this type of thing is, I could not… It was like I was getting paid to do my hobby. It was that type of thing. So when that happens, you know you’re on the right path.
Paul Goldberg: It’s a great time-
Jacquelyn Cobb: to be a……
Paul Goldberg: … period, but it’s also a great time to be a journalist.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Absolutely it is. Yeah. Especially for me, the nerd, last week. Well, I think that’s really all we have today.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Is there anything you want to touch on, Paul?
Paul Goldberg: No, this is great. Thank you for letting me go to Chicago, and-
Jacquelyn Cobb: We got you.
Paul Goldberg: … holding down the fort. Looking forward to the NCI talks tomorrow, which is about the cancer centers, and how the NOFO is going to look, and some previews of that, but there should be more. Yeah, it’s-
Jacquelyn Cobb: More at the time, very exciting.
Paul Goldberg: … fascinating, that it is, as you said, a great time to be a journalist.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Awesome. Well, thank you, Paul and listeners.
Paul Goldberg: Thank you.
Jacquelyn Cobb: You will hear us next week. Take care.
Paul Goldberg: All right.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Thank you for joining us on The Cancer Letter Podcast, where we explore the stories shaping the future of oncology. For more in-depth reporting and analysis, visit us at cancerletter.com. With over 200 site license subscriptions, you may already have access through your workplace. If you found this episode valuable, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share. Together, we’ll keep the conversation going.
Paul Goldberg: Until next time. Stay informed, stay engaged, and thank you for listening.
