Recurrent Pancreatic Cancer

Current Clinical Trials

Chemotherapy occasionally produces objective antitumor response, but the low percentage of significant responses and lack of survival advantage warrant use of therapies under evaluation.[1]

Standard treatment options:

1. Chemotherapy with fluorouracil [2] or gemcitabine.[3-5]

2. Palliative surgical bypass procedures, such as endoscopic or radiologically placed stents.[6,7]

3. Palliative radiation procedures.

4. Pain relief by celiac axis nerve or intrapleural block (percutaneous).[8]

5. Other palliative medical care alone.

Treatment options under clinical evaluation:

• Clinical trials evaluating pharmacologic modulation of fluorinated pyrimidines, new anticancer agents, or biologicals (phase I and II).

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with recurrent pancreatic cancer ¹. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site ².

References

1. Royal RE, Wolfe RA, Crane CH: Cancer of the pancreas. In: DeVita VT Jr, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA: Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2011, pp 961-89. 
   
   
2. Cullinan SA, Moertel CG, Fleming TR, et al.: A comparison of three chemotherapeutic regimens in the treatment of advanced pancreatic and gastric carcinoma. Fluorouracil vs fluorouracil and doxorubicin vs fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and mitomycin. JAMA 253 (14): 2061-7, 1985.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
3. Rothenberg ML, Moore MJ, Cripps MC, et al.: A phase II trial of gemcitabine in patients with 5-FU-refractory pancreas cancer. Ann Oncol 7 (4): 347-53, 1996.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
4. Burris HA 3rd, Moore MJ, Andersen J, et al.: Improvements in survival and clinical benefit with gemcitabine as first-line therapy for patients with advanced pancreas cancer: a randomized trial. J Clin Oncol 15 (6): 2403-13, 1997.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
5. Storniolo AM, Enas NH, Brown CA, et al.: An investigational new drug treatment program for patients with gemcitabine: results for over 3000 patients with pancreatic carcinoma. Cancer 85 (6): 1261-8, 1999.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
6. Sohn TA, Lillemoe KD, Cameron JL, et al.: Surgical palliation of unresectable periampullary adenocarcinoma in the 1990s. J Am Coll Surg 188 (6): 658-66; discussion 666-9, 1999.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
7. Baron TH: Expandable metal stents for the treatment of cancerous obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract. N Engl J Med 344 (22): 1681-7, 2001.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
8. Polati E, Finco G, Gottin L, et al.: Prospective randomized double-blind trial of neurolytic coeliac plexus block in patients with pancreatic cancer. Br J Surg 85 (2): 199-201, 1998.  [PUBMED Abstract]