Active clinical trials for "Pancreatic Neoplasms"

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of the QLQ-GINET21 in making clinical and therapeutic decisions.

Data from this study will contribute additional knowledge regarding patient outcomes and direct somatostatin analogue (SSA) treatment related costs in clinical practice in the Nordic countries. Such knowledge can be of importance in a treatment decision, decision support for development of care, follow up and training of both patients and primary care nurses.

This is an observational, post-authorization, prospective follow-up, multi-centre, national study designed to describe the spectrum of health-related quality of life in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer previously untreated with chemotherapy This study is designed to observe patients treated in routine clinical practice, without the exclusion limitations of a clinical trial. Patients will be enrolled in 7 Spanish sites. In all cases, the decision to treat patients will be performed prior to the decision to include the patient in the study. Given the observational nature of the study, follow-up of patients will be performed according to standard clinical practice of each site.

The goal of this survey of international HIPEC (Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy) surgeons is to determine their knowledge of and attitudes towards the nutritional support needs of HIPEC patients and what their practice patterns are with this patient population.

The purpose of this study is to develop a test for detection of pancreatic cancer by looking at the subject's DNA.

The radiologist plays a key role in the management of pancreatic tumours, which are potentially serious. While the scanner, with its high spatial resolution, plays a major role in pancreatic pathology, and in particular in the assessment of operability, MRI, with its good contrast resolution, has proven its contribution to the detection and characterization of focal lesions. Each MRI examination consists of several series of images called sequences, each with its own particularity, to highlight different types of abnormalities such as edema, bleeding, tumor content or vascularization. All the sequences performed constitute a "protocol". The diffusion sequence is a technology that allows the microscopic random movements of water molecules to be translated into images. It thus makes it possible to differentiate between certain aggressive tumours which are characterised by a higher cell density than healthy tissue, in which water molecules do not circulate freely, benign lesions such as cysts in which the circulation of water molecules is not hindered. The calculation of the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC), an estimate of the diffusion rate of water molecules, is a quantitative diagnostic tool validated in many fields of application and in particular in oncology.

Given the dismal prognosis of pancreatic cancer, detecting liver metastases early can avoid inappropriate therapy with the associated substantial risks, long-term hospital admissions and high costs, but without survival benefit. The current standard of diagnostic workup with contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) has a poor sensitivity (38-76%) for the detection of liver metastases. As more sophisticated and expensive treatment options emerge, better staging of pancreatic cancer is needed to avoid unnecessary procedures and select the most appropriate treatment strategy. New imaging modalities are available, but their value in staging of pancreatic cancer has not been evaluated yet. Therefore prospective imaging studies are necessary. The main aim of this study is to determine the diagnostic accuracy of contrast-enhanced diffusion-weighted MRI (CE-DW-MRI) in the detection of liver metastases in patients with pancreatic cancer compared to a reference standard of histopathology and follow up imaging. The study is an international, multicenter prospective cohort study (inclusion of patients until 138 patients with liver metastases are included, with a total maximum of 465 patients). Patients with pancreatic cancer will undergo additional CE-DW-MRI within two weeks from the CECT. CECT and CE-DW-MRI will be read independently by two radiologists. Suspected liver lesions on CECT and/or CE-DW-MRI will be biopsied to obtain histopathology as reference standard. For liver lesions without histopathologic proof of metastases a paired follow-up CECT and CE-DW-MRI serve as a composite reference standard. Pancreatic resection will be pursued in patients without proven liver or distant metastases. Patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease will be offered palliative treatment. Follow up CECT and CE-DW-MRI will be performed in all patients at 3, 6, and 12 months.

Very few surveys have been carried out about oncosurgical decisions made in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC), and none have established whether the therapeutic approaches differ between low/medium and high volume centers. A survey was sent out to centers from Spanish Group of Pancreatic Surgery (GECP) asking about usual pre, intra and postoperative management of PC patients and describing five imaginary cases of PC corresponding to common scenarios that surgeons regularly assess in oncosurgical meetings. Investigators define consensus when 80% of answers were equal.

Contrast enhanced EUS with the sonographic contrast agent DEFINITY™ has the potential to detect pancreatic cancer at an earlier stage, to improve current method of T staging and assessment of surgical resectability and also to distinguish between benign and malignant pancreatic masses. All these will translate into better clinical outcome, and also avoid unnecessary surgery in situations of unresectable cancers.

The purpose of this study is to find out whether Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) can detect early stage pre-cancerous or cancerous changes in the pancreas in patients at high-risk for the development of pancreatic cancer. Endoscopic refers to the use of an instrument called an endoscope - a thin, flexible tube with a tiny video camera and light on the end. Ultrasound refers to an imaging technique that uses sound waves to produce pictures. EUS in this research study is a method of combining endoscopy and ultrasound imaging to obtain high quality images of the pancreas.