New drugs take aim at one of cancer’s deadliest mutations Mutations in the KRAS protein were once deemed ‘undruggable’. Today, various approaches are in the pipeline. By Heidi Ledford

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01016-7?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=4b50fd2341-nature-briefing-daily-20260408&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-50432164 Drugs for the ‘undruggable’ Fresh approaches to drug design are bringing researchers closer to effective cancer treatments that target KRAS — a protein that, when mutated, fuels some of the most lethal tumours. Mutant KRAS was once considered to be ‘undruggable’, but a new type of drug that tags the protein for destruction by the body’s ‘waste disposal’ has shown signs of success in a clinical trial. Another four trials are also exploring a separate drug that inhibits several different mutant forms of KRAS. In combinations, such treatments could create a regimen that KRAS-mutant cancers cannot escape, says gastroenterologist Dieter Saur.