View clinical trials related to Pancreatic Tumors.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to explore the efficacy and safety of everolimus administered as a first-line treatment in newly-diagnosed patients with advanced or inoperable Gastrointestinal (GI) or pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.
In the US, pancreas cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer related deaths. It was estimated to have taken 36,800 lives in 2010. Unfortunately, curing pancreatic cancer requires surgical removal. Surgical removal of the pancreas is associated with high morbidity and mortality, as well as high rates of complications. One way to aid surgeons in removing pancreatic tumors is by providing them with a good idea of where the tumor is located and what surrounding structures are involved. This currently happens through many different modalities of imaging; usually computed tomography (CT) and endoscopic ultrasound. Even with these forms of imaging (and sometimes others), surgeons will occasionally open a patient and find that the tumor cannot be removed due to its involvement with surrounding structures. One way to avoid potentially unnecessary procedures or to help a surgeon navigate this delicate procedure would be to provide more detailed information about the tumor. Several of the techniques currently used to image the body have rapidly advanced over recent years. Typical advancements come through better resolution of the images or contrast to enhance desired parts of the images. Ultrasound has not seen such a two pronged advance. Ultrasound has seen substantial advances in resolution to enhance picture quality, but contrast has not been used clinically to assess pancreatic masses whereas it is for cardiologists to use contrast to look at potential defects in the heart. The contrast that is used with ultrasound is different from that of CT scans. CT scanners use a dye that can be potentially hazardous. This dye can lead to serious kidney damage in some patients. Ultrasound contrast, on the other hand, is made of small micro bubbles filled with a harmless gas. Because of the way ultrasound works, these micro bubbles reflect the sound waves differently than the surrounding tissue and thus provide contrast between normal tissue and abnormal tissue. The contrast used in this study, Definity, and is the same contrast used by Cardiologists. The CE-EUS will be used for research purposes only and will not be used for any clinical decision making. The surgeon will be blinded to the results of the research CE-EUS. The investigators will compare the research pre-operative contrast enhanced endoscopic ultrasounds images with already completed standard-of-care CT scans, the actual pancreatic involvement seen in surgery and the pathology reports.
Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS)-guided biopsy is the most ideal technique for evaluating a growth in the pancreas. EUS-guided biopsies yield a definitive diagnosis in greater than 80% of cases. In 15-20% of the cases, a definitive diagnosis cannot be made despite multiple attempts. One of the reasons why a diagnosis cannot be made is due to the focal location of the cancer; i.e., the cancer can be situated in a corner of a big mass and the needle fails to sample the cancer cells. The fanning technique is a method where the needle moves in multiple directions within a mass and therefore there is a better chance of the cancer cells being sampled compared to the standard technique where the needle moves in only one direction. The diagnostic performance of both these techniques has not been compared in a randomized fashion.
The goal of this study is to compare a sample of the cyst taken by a standard method (fine needle aspiration) to the sample taken by a new method using a device called the EchoBrush to see which method is more accurate at diagnosing cancer. We will also look at proteins (also called biomarkers) in the samples to see if they predict whether or not the cyst is cancerous.