Active clinical trials for "Pancreatic Neoplasms"

Chemotherapy is often used to help shrink the cancer temporarily and may improve survival for patients with incurable pancreas cancer that has spread to other organs. In Canada, the gemcitabine chemotherapy is used to treat pancreas cancer that has spread. The combination of oxaliplatin with other chemotherapies, including 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, and irinotecan has also been studied and has benefit for patients with advanced pancreas cancer. To date, there is no test that can be done on a patient's tumour to tell if chemotherapy will work in pancreatic cancer. Human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1) has been shown to be a possible predictor that gemcitabine may or may not work but this needs to be proven in a randomized study where patients get treated with gemcitabine or a different kind of chemotherapy while their tumours get tested for hENT1. This study is being done because we want to prove that hENT1 can predict if gemcitabine will work in advanced pancreas cancer and if it can, we also would like to show that a different chemotherapy combination called FOLFOX (a combination of 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin) will be helpful for patients whose tumours don't have hENT1.

Background: Gastrointestinal cancers are among the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States. There are currently no tests to predict how patients with gastrointestinal cancers will respond to radiation therapy or which patients may develop side effects from treatment. Studies on tumor cells in the stool, urine, or blood from patients may provide valuable information that can be used to develop tests to determine which patients may need more or less aggressive therapy. Studies of other substances in the stool, urine, or blood from patients may provide valuable information that can be used to develop tests to determine which patients are likely to develop side effects from radiation treatments. Objectives: To collect blood, urine and stool specimens from patients with gastrointestinal cancers who will undergo radiation therapy. To study hormone and protein changes in these blood, urine and stool specimens before, during and after radiation treatment in order to develop a way to predict how gastrointestinal cancers will respond to radiation therapy and if patients with these cancers will develop side effects from radiation treatment. Eligibility: -Patients 18 years of age and older with cancer of the gastrointestinal tract (esophagus, stomach, pancreas, rectum) who plan to receive radiotherapy to the site of the cancer on an National Cancer Institute (NCI) protocol Design: Participants undergo the following procedures: Tumor biopsy: Before any treatment or at the time of surgery if it is the first treatment Urine collection: Before, during, and after treatment and at follow-up visits. Stool collection: Before, during, and after treatment and at follow-up visits. Blood collection: Before, during, and after treatment and at follow-up visits. Intestinal permeability assessment: Before any treatment, before radiation (if radiation is not the first treatment), 1 month after radiation is completed, and 3 months after radiation is completed. This test determines how the patients intestines are working to absorb sugar and may provide information about side effects from radiation treatments. Patients fast after midnight, then drink a small glass of sugars, and then do a 6-hour urine collection.

To evaluate the combination of ABI-007 with gemcitabine or with LV5FU2.

This study is for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (cancer that involves the local blood vessels so it cannot be removed without cutting major blood vessels) that cannot be treated with surgery. The purpose of this study is to assess the safety and benefit of 6 three week cycles of chemotherapy treatment consisting of gemcitabine, capecitabine and docetaxel (also called 'GTX'). The patients fall into two groups. Group I are those with only venous involvement. Group II patients have arterial involvement and may also have venous involvement. If there is arterial involvement, GTX will be followed by 5 and 1/2 weeks of radiation therapy with gemcitabine and capecitabine. After the chemotherapy and radiation treatment, participants may be able to have surgery to remove any remaining pancreatic cancer.

The purpose of this study is to confirm safety and immunological responses of Preoperative intratumor dendritic cells injection immunotherapy using immature dendritic cells with S pyogenes Preparation (OK-432) for patients with resectable pancreatic cancer for pancreatic cancer patients.

Induction chemotherapy will be administered every 2 weeks for 6 cycles (about 3 months). Patients who have radiological evidence of progressive disease will be shifted to salvage chemotherapy. Patients who have responsive or stable disease after induction chemotherapy will receive concurrent chemoradiotherapy 3-4 weeks after the last dose of induction chemotherapy. Surgical evaluation will be performed 4-6 weeks after the completion of chemoradiotherapy. Patients who have resectable disease will undergo surgical resection. Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with GOFL for 6 cycles will be given for those who have curative resection. Patients who still have unresectable disease or non-curative resection will receive systemic chemotherapy of GOFL till disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Biological therapies use different ways to stimulate the immune system and stop cancer cells from growing. It is not yet known whether chemotherapy is more effective than biological therapy in treating patients with cancer of the pancreas. PURPOSE: Randomized phase II trial to compare the effectiveness of gemcitabine with biological therapy in treating patients who have cancer of the pancreas that cannot be surgically removed.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Monoclonal antibodies such as trastuzumab can locate tumor cells and either kill them or deliver tumor-killing substances to them without harming normal cells. Combining monoclonal antibody therapy with chemotherapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of gemcitabine and trastuzumab in treating patients who have metastatic cancer of the pancreas that overexpresses HER2/neu.

RATIONALE: Drugs such as SU006668 may stop the growth of solid tumors by stopping blood flow to the tumor. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of SU006668 in treating patients who have advanced solid tumors.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of DHA-paclitaxel in treating patients who have metastatic pancreatic cancer.