View clinical trials related to Pancreatic Cancer.
Filter by:RATIONALE: Studying samples of tissue, blood, urine, stool, and other biological fluids from patients with cancer and from healthy volunteers undergoing colonoscopy or endoscopy may help doctors identify and learn more about biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This research study is looking at gastrointestinal biomarkers in tissue and biological fluid samples from patients and participants undergoing colonoscopy, endoscopy, or surgery.
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.
RATIONALE: Studying samples of 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 study is looking at genetic susceptibility to cancer and interactions between genes and the environment in patients with cancer in East Anglia, Trent, or West Midlands of the United Kingdom.
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy such as gemcitabine, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Sorafenib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth and by blocking blood flow to the tumor. It is not yet known whether giving gemcitabine together with sorafenib is more effective than giving gemcitabine alone in treating pancreatic cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying giving gemcitabine together with sorafenib to see how well it works compared with giving gemcitabine alone in treating patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease with an extremely poor prognosis. It is the forth leading cause of cancer-related fatalities, with an estimated one-year and five-year survival rate of 21% and 5%, respectively. Despite recent progress, the median survival time is 6-10 months for patients with locally advanced disease and 3-6 months for metastatic disease (1). The anti-metabolite gemcitabine has become the standard chemotherapy for locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer, after demonstrating an improved rate of clinical benefit response and an overall survival advantage over 5-FU (2). In addition to its clinical effectiveness gemcitabine has a manageable toxicity profile, making it an attractive agent to investigate in combination with newer agents. Series of phase III trials were conducted examining the efficacy of the combination of gemcitabine and a second cytotoxic agent, including 5-FU, cisplatin, oxaliplatin and irinotecan. These gemcitabine doublets demonstrated no survival advantage over single-agent gemcitabine (3-6). However, the rationale for continuing to study gemcitabine-based combinations remains compelling. Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is a natural compound derived from the rhizome of Curcuma Longa, an East Indian plant, commonly called turmeric. It has been shown to possess potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties, for which it has a long history of dietary use as a food additive. Curcumin has also a potent anti-proliferative effects against a variety of cancer cell lines in vitro, which stem from its ability to modulate many intracellular signal transduction pathways (7). Human phase I-II studies found curcumin to be safe, and indicated no dose-limiting toxicity when taken by mouth at doses up to 10 g/day (8, 9). This data, together with the dismal therapeutic options available for pancreatic cancer patients, suggest that curcumin warrants investigation in this setting. Investigators from MD Anderson Cancer Center and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, have recently initiated, separately, a phase II study of single agent Curcumin in patients with pancreatic cancer (10). One of the lessons learned from cancer research in recent decades is that combination strategies can provide dramatic improvement in a therapy’s safety and efficacy over mono-therapeutic regiments, especially if the combined drugs differ in their mode of action. In a recent paper that was accepted for publication we demonstrated, in vitro, the mechanism, clinical importance and implications of a novel combinatorial therapy, of celecoxib and curcumin, that was discovered in our lab, in inhibiting the growth of several pancreatic cell lines. P-34 (expressing high levels of COX -2), MiaPaca (Expressing low levels of COX-2) and Panc-1 (no expression of COX -2) cell lines were exposed to different concentrations of celecoxib (0-40µM), curcumin (0-20µM) and their combination. In P-34 cells, curcumin synergistically potentiated the inhibitory effect of celecoxib on cell growth. The growth inhibition was associated with inhibition of proliferation and induction of apoptosis. These experiments further demonstrate, for the first time, that the combination effect is correlated with synergistic augmentation of apoptosis and involves down-regulation of COX-2 protein. The present study evaluates gemcitabine in combination with curcumin and celecoxib for patients with pancreatic cancer.
This is the first study investigating the safety of 32P BioSilicon in patients with advanced,unresectable pancreatic cancer who are also receiving standard intravenous gemcitabine chemotherapy. The secondary aims of the study will assess the implantation procedure, localisation of 32P BioSilicon, tumour response and survival parameters. Tumours targetted with 32P BioSilicon is hypothesized to show a reduction in tumour volume and with the low radioactivity dose that is delivered intratumourally, the incidence of side effects associated with the treatment is expected to be low. Prologation of survival and improved quality of life could be favourable outcomes of the investigational product.
S-1 is a novel oral fluorouracil antitumor drug that consists of tegafur which is a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU); 5-chloro-2,4-dihydropyridine (CDHP), which inhibits dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) activity; and potassium oxonate (Oxo), which reduces gastrointestinal toxicity. 5-FU is metabolized by CYP2A6 and DPD. In this study, the researchers investigate the influences of differences in activities of CYP2A6 and DPD on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of S-1 and clinical outcomes in digestive organ cancer patients treated with S-1.
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.
This study evaluates the safety, the immunological response and the clinical outcome of a vaccination with survivin peptides for patients with advanced melanoma, pancreatic, colon and cervical carcinoma.
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as cisplatin and gemcitabine, work in different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Giving low-dose interferon alfa on a metronomic (regularly timed) schedule may stop the growth of cancer by stopping blood flow to the tumor. Fever-range (above 101° F) whole-body hyperthermia kills tumor cells by heating them to several degrees above normal body temperature. Combining cisplatin, gemcitabine, and low-dose interferon alfa with fever-range whole-body hyperthermia may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving cisplatin, gemcitabine, and metronomic low-dose interferon alfa together with fever-range whole-body hyperthermia works in treating patients with inoperable or metastatic pancreatic cancer.