Active clinical trials for "Pancreatic Neoplasms"

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of chemotherapy with or without enoxaparin. This study is powered to decrease the DVT/ VTE events rate from 10% to 3% with enoxaparin in the experimental arm. N=540pts, dropout-rate 15%, power 80 %, two sided, significant level 5%

RATIONALE: Sorafenib and erlotinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Sorafenib may also stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking blood flow to the tumor. Giving sorafenib together with erlotinib may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving sorafenib together with erlotinib works in treating patients with pancreatic cancer that cannot be removed by surgery.

The aim of this research project is to determine the amount of capecitabine (Xeloda) which can be given safely with PHY906 (investigational drug) on a novel schedule. It is also the aim of this research project to determine what the effects, good and/or bad, are of combining capecitabine (Xeloda) with PHY906 (investigational drug) in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. PHY906 is a powder from plants sold as a health food supplement in the United States. PHY906 has been used in China, Taiwan and other Asian countries as traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years. The other drug involved in this study, capecitabine is an oral form of chemotherapy already approved by FDA in the management of colorectal and breast cancer. Laboratory studies in animal models have shown that the combination of capecitabine and PHY906 shrinks liver cancer, and a pilot clinical study is currently evaluating this combination in patients with liver cancer to define the benefit. PHY906 has also shown to decrease diarrhea related to chemotherapy in a small study performed in patients with colon cancer treated at the Yale Cancer Center. Our recent laboratory studies have also shown that the combination of capecitabine and PHY906 also shrink pancreatic tumors in mouse models. This prompted us to test the combination of capecitabine and PHY906 in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer to assess the benefit in survival as well as any decrease in side effects, such as diarrhea caused by capecitabine.

The objectives of this pilot study are: (i) to compare response to chemotherapy, time to disease progression and overall survival in patients with pancreatic cancer who will be treated with gemcitabine (or other nucleoside analogs) who demonstrate [18]F-FLT uptake to those patients who do not demonstrate [18]F-FLT uptake; (ii) to correlate [18]F-FLT uptake with hENT1 expression in biopsy samples where available; (iii)to determine the presence or absence of uptake, the relative uptake score (RUS), standardized uptake value (SUV), and tumor to background ratios (T/B) of [18]F-FLT in patients with known carcinoma of the pancreas and assess this uptake in relation to time to disease progression; and (iv) to demonstrate the safety of [18]F-FLT.

This is a phase II study of biweekly (every other week) bevacizumab followed by gemcitabine then infusional 5-fluorouracil in patients with stage III or IV pancreatic cancer. Patients' response will be evaluated every 8 weeks using usual CT scanning techniques. RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid tumors) criteria will be applied to evaluate response. Tumor marker levels (Ca 19-9) will be assessed every 4 weeks, but will not be used to measure response.

This is an open-label, multi-center phase II study of erlotinib in patients with metastatic or locally advanced, unresectable pancreatic cancer who have received up to one line of gemcitabine based chemotherapy.

The purpose of this study is to obtain preliminary safety and efficacy data after endoscopic ultrasound-guided celiac plexus neurolysis (EUS-CPN) in patients with locally advanced or unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Hypotheses: Increased amounts of alcohol used in EUS-CPN is safe and more efficacious in improving pain relief in patients with locally advanced or unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Effective pain relief obtained from EUS-CPN will be related to better quality of life (QOL)

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as fluorouracil, leucovorin, cisplatin, and gemcitabine, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) and giving them in different ways may kill more tumor cells. It is not yet known which combination chemotherapy regimen is more effective in treating metastatic pancreatic cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying two different combination chemotherapy regimens to compare how well they work in treating patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer that cannot be removed by surgery.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Erlotinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Genistein may help gemcitabine and erlotinib kill more tumor cells by making tumor cells more sensitive to the drugs. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving genistein together with gemcitabine and erlotinib works in treating patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer.

The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of AZD6244 (ARRY-142886)versus capecitabine in patients with advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer who have failed first-line therapy with gemcitabine. Following baseline assessments, a minimum of 64 patients in approximately 5-6 centers from the US will be treated with either AZD6244 or capecitabine. Treatment will be continued for as long as the patients receive clinical benefit. The status of all patients will be checked (whether they are still taking treatment or not) approximately 3 months after the last patient has entered the study.