Active clinical trials for "Pancreatic Neoplasms"

Patients with pancreatic cancer are treated with combinations of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, depending on the location of the cancer and other individual patient health factors. The goals of therapy are to reduce or eliminate the cancer cells, but without serious damage to normal cells. Investigators at The University of Michigan are conducting a research project, to see if treatment effects on an individual patient's cancer cells can be detected early by new imaging tests in patients with resectable pancreatic cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.

High doses of gabapentin are associated with pancreatic acinar cell tumors in rats, but there has been no post marketing pancreatic carcinogenicity signal with gabapentin as reported by spontaneous reports in the Adverse Events Reporting System or in the published literature. In a published case-control screening study of the association of gabapentin with 55 cancers, the only cancer that met the screening criteria for possibly increased cancer risk with gabapentin exposure was renal (including renal pelvis) cancer. This association was judged to be likely due to or substantially accentuated by confounding by cigarette smoking, hypertension, and lifestyle (Cancer Causes Control 2009;20:1821-1835). The primary objective of this study is to determine whether exposure to gabapentin is associated with an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer or renal cancer in the United Kingdom (UK) General Practice Research Database (GPRD). Almost all members of the UK population are registered with a General Practice, which centralizes the medical information not only from the general practitioners themselves but also from specialist referrals and hospital attendances. Over 487 General Practices contribute data to the GPRD. The study cohort from which cases and controls are drawn is all subjects in the GPRD 1993-2008. Gabapentin was approved in the UK in May 1993. Entry into the study cohort begins Jan 1, 1993 for all those who are registered in GPRD before that time, and at the time of registration if later than Jan 1, 1993. Patients with a first diagnosis of the respective cancer 1995-2008 are risk set matched with up to 10 controls within the same General Practice for age at cohort entry (within two years), sex, and year of entry into the study cohort (within one year). For cases, the index date is the date of first diagnosis of the respective cancer. The index date for controls is set as the date at which the follow-up time from cohort entry is the same as the case. The index date is chosen so as to give the control equal follow-up time to that of the case for ascertainment of use of gabapentin. Cases and controls will be required to have at least 2 years of follow-up in the study cohort before their index date. Data on gabapentin prescriptions are obtained for cases and controls from study cohort entry to the index date. Crude and adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) will be produced from conditional logistic regression models, with additional analyses evaluating for latency and dose-response. For pancreatic cancer, covariates are smoking, body mass index, diabetes, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, and chronic pancreatitis. For renal cancer, covariates are smoking, body mass index, diabetes, hypertension, diuretic use, epilepsy, and neuropathic pain.

The purpose of this study is to determine how effective Whipple at the Splenic Artery (WATSA).

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in peptides and proteins and identify biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This research study is looking at blood samples from patients with malignant melanoma, metastatic breast cancer, advanced lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, or colorectal cancer.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tissue in the laboratory from patients with cancer may help doctors identify and learn more about biomarkers related to cancer. It may also help doctors predict how patients will respond to treatment. PURPOSE: This research study is studying biomarkers in patients with pancreatic cancer.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tumor tissue from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that may occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This laboratory study uses gene expression profiling to compare primary tumor cells with metastatic tumor cells in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

RATIONALE: Gathering information about patients' quality of life during radiation therapy for cancer may help doctors plan the best treatment. PURPOSE: This randomized clinical trial is studying quality of life in patients undergoing radiation therapy for primary lung cancer, head and neck cancer, or gastrointestinal cancer.

This study includes participants with pancreatic cancer who are undergoing genetic testing at Invitae related to their diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Our goal in this study is two-fold. First, we would like to research whether any inherited changes in genes may be associated with pancreatic cancer. Second, we would like to learn more about patient experiences with genetic testing, such as patient understanding of the testing, health-related actions taken (or planned to take) as a result of testing, communication and action of family members based on test results, and psychological impact of testing. This research study involves allowing collection of tumor tissue (from a prior biopsy and/or surgery), a blood sample, and sending surveys to participants for their opinion on the impact of the genetic testing as well as clinicians for relevant baseline and medical history information.

At present there is no validated prognostic tool for patients with resectable pancreatic cancer (RPC) to determine how best to tailor individual therapy. This study is to see if tumor features in blood and imaging prior to surgery correspond with tumor heterogeneity in the specimen after surgery.

Reflexion on the therapeutic strategies to implement in patients at the end of life is advancing rapidly in France. However, beyond the choices presented to patients, sometimes even the decision to carry on, to limit or to stop treatments is also questioned. This decision is subjective; it is influenced by the patient's representation system (emotions, beliefs, values, practices, etc). In addition, even though he or she is the focus of the decision, the patient is not alone; other actors, accompanying the patient, play an important role in the final decision making. These actors, namely the doctors and close relatives, are also influenced in their decision making. This coexistence of representation systems may interfere with objective indicators that help in decision making (functional, clinical and biological) or with the knowledge acquired by doctors in their training and may complicate the decision-making process.