Active clinical trials for "Pancreatic Neoplasms"

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood 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 is examining blood samples from patients with cancer to identify biomarkers that may help in the early detection of pancreatic cancer.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tumor tissue in the laboratory from patients with cancer may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. It may also help doctors predict how patients will respond to treatment. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is looking at biomarkers in predicting response to treatment in patients who have undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tumor tissue and blood from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This research study is assessing fibroblast activity in patients with localized pancreatic cancer undergoing surgery.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood and tumor tissue in the laboratory from patients with cancer and blood from healthy participants may help doctors learn more about changes that may occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is looking at cancer-related protein biomarkers in the blood and tumor tissue of patients with cancer and in the blood of healthy participants.

The purpose of this project is to evaluate and compare three new methods for diagnosis, staging, operability evaluation and treatment control of pancreas cancer. The investigators use contrast-enhanced ultrasound combined with the gastrointestinal hormones Secretin and Cholecystokinin, which triggers the enzyme production of pancreas. The hormones induce an increased metabolism and thus an increased blood flow through healthy pancreas tissue, however, not in tumor tissue. The investigators hope to be able to use this effect diagnostically. The patients included will also have a 64-slice-CT in order to evaluate, if an increased diagnostic safety can be reached compared to an older CT scanning method. All patients will also be examined for the tumor marker CA 19-9. Further, the investigators will examine if contrast-enhanced ultrasound can contribute with information in treatment control after either surgery or medical treatment.

The primary aim of REuBio study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of repeated endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle biopsy after a previous non-diagnostic or inconclusive EUS-guided sampling of solid pancreatic lesions.

This is a randomized trial to evaluate and directly compare the tissue quality, diagnostic sucess and safety profile of four different Fine Needle Biopsy needles.

Pancreatic cancer has a high mortality rate. Patients with an intended curative resection show a median survival of 17-23 months. Therefore, quality of life is very important in this patient group. In this study, the effect of pancreatic surgery on quality of life is measured.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using ultrasound to image and track pancreas/duodenum motion during radiation therapy treatment delivery. Also develop a workflow and process to allow the final ultrasound system to be used routinely by radiation therapists.

The study protocol is based on a multi-center semi-quantitative approach of EUS elastography data in combination with contrast-enhanced EUS, consisting of measuring SR and SH for focal pancreatic masses and lymph nodes, as well as several parameters of CE-EUS based on time-intensity-curve (TIC) analysis. A number of parameters must be taken into consideration, as the ROIs are still manually selected by the user. The aim of the study is to establish an EUS based diagnostic algorithm in patients with pancreatic masses and lymph nodes, with negative or inconclusive cytopathology after EUS-FNA, based on previously published results and cut-offs of elastography and contrast-enhancement. The proposed algorithm of sequential use of real-time elastography, followed by contrast-enhanced EUS could be a good clinical tool to help select the patients with possible pancreatic adenocarcinoma or malignant lymph nodes, in the setting of patients with negative EUS-FNA results.