Active clinical trials for "Pancreatic Neoplasms"

Phase I: Safety profile and to determine maximum tolerated dose (MTD) / Recommended Dose (DR) of Sorafenib in combination with Gemcitabine and Radiotherapy Phase II: Activity profile evaluating Progression-free rates (PFR) at 6 months, Response rate, Overall survival, Toxicity profile

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%

Over 7000 patients are diagnosed with pancreas cancer every year in the UK. Only 10% have it caught early enough to have surgery to cure it. The rest at best can undergo chemotherapy to extend survival, but current treatments offer at best an improvement of only a few months compared to no treatment at all. In addition only about a quarter of patients will respond to the treatment. In addition these patients often experience profound weight loss, loss of appetite and energy primarily because of the cancer process itself. Our hypothesis is that the addition of fish oil infusion to gemcitabine chemotherapy will result in an improved rate of tumour response on CT imaging. Fish oils, or specifically the omega-3 fatty acid component, appear to have a range of powerful anti-cancer actions. This is supported by evidence from a wide range of sources, from laboratory experiments to basic human studies. Although this evidence specifically includes many pancreatic cancer studies in the laboratory it has not yet been confirmed in human trials. Contrary to conventional chemotherapy, fish oil is a naturally occuring non-toxic compound and so is not associated with the side-effects of chemotherapy. In fact a number of clinical studies have demonstrated significant improvements in quality of life for pancreas cancer patients treated with fish oil, particularly with reference to improvements in appetite and energy levels. This is of course in addition to the anti-cancer actions.

RATIONALE: Sunitinib malate may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the tyrosine kinases needed for angiogenesis and cell growth. It is not yet known whether sunitinib malate is effective as maintenance therapy in delaying tumor progression in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who are progression-free after 6 months of induction chemotherapy. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying sunitinib malate as maintenance therapy to see how well it works compared with observation in avoiding tumor progression after induction chemotherapy in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Phase 2 Clinical trial to Evaluate the efficacy and safety of activated T-lymphocyte ("Immuncell-LC") cell therapy in Gemcitabine refractory advanced pancreatic cancer

The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if dalteparin can lower the risk of VTE occurring in the legs and lungs. This will be tested in patients with pancreatic cancer who are going to receive chemotherapy. Some patients will receive dalteparin and some will receive no study drug. The safety of dalteparin will also be studied.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as capecitabine, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Vorinostat may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Radiation therapy uses high energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Giving capecitabine and vorinostat together with radiation therapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best dose of vorinostat when given together with capecitabine and radiation therapy in treating patients with nonmetastatic pancreatic cancer.

This randomized phase I/II trial is studying gemcitabine hydrochloride and vismodegib to see how well they work compared with gemcitabine hydrochloride alone in treating patients with recurrent or metastatic pancreatic cancer. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine hydrochloride, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Vismodegib may slow the growth of tumor cells. It is not yet known whether giving gemcitabine hydrochloride together with vismodegib is more effective than gemcitabine hydrochloride alone in treating patients with pancreatic cancer.

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.

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.