View clinical trials related to Pancreatic Cancer.
Filter by:1.1 Primary Objective To evaluate the effects of short course preoperative erlotinib treatment in a panel of predictive biomarkers from a group of patients who undergo resection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma with curative intent. 1.2 Secondary Objectives 1.2.1 To analyze the effects of short course preoperative erlotinib treatment followed by postoperative erlotinib-gemcitabine therapy in the disease-free survival of patients who undergo curative intent resection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. 1.2.2 To evaluate secondary endpoints of disease response such as duration of overall survival and patterns of recurrence for patients with resectable pancreatic cancer who undergo this treatment regimen. 1.2.3 To evaluate the plasma pharmacokinetics of erlotinib in pancreatic cancer patients both in the preoperative and postoperative setting, and to explore correlations between plasma and tumor erlotinib concentrations. 1.2.4 To develop a clinically relevant predictive assay of response to erlotinib based on selected biomarkers in endoscopic ultrasound-fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) specimens when it can be obtained at the time of pancreatic cancer diagnosis in chemotherapy-naive patients.
RATIONALE: Sorafenib and erlotinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Sorafenib may also stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking blood flow to the tumor. Giving sorafenib together with erlotinib may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving sorafenib together with erlotinib works in treating patients with pancreatic cancer that cannot be removed by surgery.
This protocol is part of a larger grant funded by the NCI to create an international research center to study traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). All of the patients enrolled in this study will be treated at the Cancer Hospital, Fudan University, our sister institution in Shanghai, China. No patients will be seen at MDACC. This protocol will be overseen by the Fudan University Institutional Review Board (IRB00002408) which has Federal Wide Assurance through the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (Approved: April 25, 2002). The research nurses have received training at MDACC and will receive regular oversight by MDACC personnel. Primary End Point: 1. Determine the efficacy of huachansu as measured by progression free survival at 4 months. Secondary End Points: 1. Examine the feasibility and safety of treatment using huachansu in combination with gemcitabine in patients with pancreatic cancer. 2. Determine clinical efficacy by other measures including tumor response, 6-month survival, and changes in quality of life (QOL) in patients with pancreatic cancer. 3. Monitor patient blood levels of the three main cardiac glycosides that are in huachansu (bufalin, cinobufagin, and resibufogenin). This information will provide evidence to delineate the role of these cardiac glycosides in antitumor activity.
The purpose of this study is to determine if it is safe to add multiple immunotherapies to standard chemotherapy and radiation for treating pancreatic cancer tumors that cannot be completely removed by surgery. 1. GI-4000 Vaccination: The first involves a "vaccine," which is an injection (shot) that teaches your immune system to attack foreign invaders. The vaccine we will use is called "GI-4000" - a vaccine composed of yeast that is made to carry the same proteins (called "mutated Ras proteins") found in some pancreatic cancer cells. 2. Adoptive T-cell Transfer: The second type of immunotherapy in this study is called "adoptive T-cell transfer." This involves collecting a specific type of white blood cells from you (called "T-cells")and growing T-cells grown in a lab which may help the research participants' immune systems recover more quickly after chemotherapy, and possibly improved response to other immunotherapies. We hope that studying these agents together will teach us how to help the immune system fight 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.
Research Hypothesis: Ipilimumab (an antibody that blocks negative signals to T cells) administered alone or in combination with a pancreatic cancer vaccine (allogeneic pancreatic tumor cells transfected with a GM-CSF gene), has an acceptable safety profile in subjects with locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Primary Objective: To determine the safety profile of ipilimumab alone or in combination with a pancreatic cancer vaccine in subjects with locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Secondary Objectives: - To estimate overall survival (OS) which will serve as the primary efficacy signal. - To explore an association of T cell responses and immunological responses with OS in patients receiving treatment. - To estimate overall response rate (ORR), immune related best overall response rate (irBOR), progression free survival (PFS), and duration of response in patients receiving treatment. - To explore an association between immune-related adverse events (IRAEs) and ORR. - To measure tumor marker kinetics (CA 19-9) in patients receiving treatment.
This research study will examine how often hypersensitivity, or allergic reactions, occur in patients receiving the chemotherapy medication oxaliplatin. Hypersensitivity reactions can vary from a transient skin rash and fever to more severe symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest tightness, and a more severe allergic reaction that can affect blood pressure called anaphylaxis. We will be examining how often hypersensitivity reactions occur and how severe the reactions are when they occur. We will also examine whether there are factors that place people at risk for developing hypersensitivity reactions to oxaliplatin. In an optional portion to this study, we will examine whether allergy skin testing can predict whether someone will develop a hypersensitivity reaction. Participants who develop a moderate to severe allergic reaction to oxaliplatin will be invited to participate in an additional portion of the study examining a desensitization process. This part of the study will examine whether a desensitization process can prevent future hypersensitivity reactions to oxaliplatin in patients who previously developed moderate to severe hypersensitivity reactions and allow therapy with oxaliplatin to continue.
Primary Endpoint: To determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of vorinostat + radiation therapy (RT) in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). Secondary Endpoints: 1. To assess the efficacy of vorinostat + RT in patients with LAPC as estimated by median overall survival. 2. To determine the radiological response as assessed by regular computer tomography (CT) and/or dynamic contrast enhanced computer tomography (DCE-CT) among patients treated with vorinostat and RT. 3. To evaluate the occurrence of symptoms and correlate to disease progression and tolerance to treatment using the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Gastrointestinal Module (MDASI-GI) self-reporting tool. 4. To correlate serum cytokine levels with symptoms and treatment outcomes.
RATIONALE: Gathering medical information and collecting and storing samples of blood and tissue to test in the laboratory may help doctors develop better ways to screen people at risk for pancreatic cancer or other pancreatic disorders in the future. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is collecting medical information and tissue samples from patients with pancreatic cancer or other pancreatic disorders.
The major goal of this project is to reduce unnecessary pancreatic resections, namely resection in those patients with non-regional lymph node metastatses that cannot be cured with surgical resection. By combined minimally invasive methods for non-surgical biopsy and highly sensitive molecular assays for cancer cells, we believe we can increase the ability to detect distant lymph node metastases prior to surgical resection, and direct those patients for more appropriate therapy (including possible neo-adjuvant chemotherapy with or without surgery). We hypothesize that the combination of EUS-FNA and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of a multimarker panel will increase the sensitivity for malignant lymph nodes compared with EUS-FNA cytology in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.