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 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.

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 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 is a single-centre, prospective, non-randomised research study. The research team will investigate the feasibility of assessing primary human pancreatic tissue for changes to T lymphocyte function and localisation in the presence and absence of AMD3100.

The aim for this study is to implement electroporation therapy (NanoKnife) treatment for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Electroporation therapy (NanoKnife) will be given in addition to standard chemotherapy.

A study to collect survival data on patients previously enrolled in Abraxane pancreatic cancer study CA046.