MK0752 and Gemcitabine Hydrochloride in Treating Patients With Stage III and IV Pancreatic Cancer That Cannot Be Removed by Surgery

This is an interventional treatment trial for Pancreatic Cancer focused on measuring stage III pancreatic cancer, stage IV pancreatic cancer, duct cell adenocarcinoma of the pancreas Read More

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically or cytologically confirmed ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas

  • Stage III and IV, unresectable disease
• Assessable disease by endoscopic ultrasound or CT guidance
• Tissue that is assessed by the Investigator as being accessible to biopsy - for patients recruited to dose escalation phase where three previous patients have not already provided biopsies

• No known brain metastases

  • Patients with stable symptoms within the past 4 weeks, on a stable dose of steroids, and able to give informed consent are eligible

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• WHO performance status 0-1
• Life expectancy ≥ 12 weeks
• Hemoglobin ≥ 9.0 g/dL
• Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1.5 x 10^9/L
• Platelet count ≥ 100 x 10^9/L
• Serum bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• ALT ≤ 2.5 times ULN (≤ 5 times ULN if due to liver metastases)
• PT ≤ 1.5 times ULN
• Creatinine clearance ≥ 50 mL/min (uncorrected)
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use two forms of highly effective contraception (females) 4 weeks prior to, during, and for 6 months after completion of study therapy or 1 form of highly effective contraception (males) during and for 6 months after completion of study therapy
• Written (signed and dated) informed consent and capable of cooperating with treatment and follow-up
• No nonmalignant systemic disease, including active uncontrolled infection, that confers a high medical risk to the patient
• No known serologically positive HIV or hepatitis B or C infection
• No other concurrent malignancies except adequately treated cone-biopsied carcinoma in situ of the uterine cervix, basal or squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, or cancer survivors who have undergone potentially curative therapy for a prior malignancy, have no evidence of that disease ≥ 5 years, and are deemed at negligible risk for recurrence
• No concurrent congestive heart failure
• No prior history of cardiac disease (New York Heart Association class III-IV disease), cardiac ischemia, or cardiac arrhythmia
• No other condition that, in the investigator's opinion, would not make the patient a good recommendation for the clinical trial

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics
• Recovered from prior treatments
• Previous chemotherapy for advanced disease is permitted. If gemcitabine treatment was given previously, the patient must have tolerated a dose of at least 800mg/m2. Previous chemotherapy for malignant disease must be complete at least 3 weeks before treatment on this trial (six weeks for mitomycin C)
• No major thoracic or abdominal surgery from which the patient has not yet recovered

• No concurrent participation or planned participation in another interventional clinical study

  • Concurrent participation in an observational study allowed

• No concurrent warfarin

  • Low molecular weight heparin allowed
• No concurrent radiotherapy (except palliative for bone pain), endocrine therapy, or immunotherapy
• No other concurrent anticancer therapy or investigational drugs