Gemcitabine Plus Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Pancreatic Cancer

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2002-03-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining radiation therapy with chemotherapy may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of gemcitabine plus radiation therapy in treating patients with pancreatic cancer that can not be surgically removed.

• Phase: Phase 1
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Collaborator: National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• Treatments: Gemcitabine

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically or cytologically proven locally advanced and/or unresectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreas No metastatic disease No completely resected pancreatic cancer

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 18 and over Performance status: Karnofsky 60-100% OR ECOG 0-2 Life expectancy: Not specified Hematopoietic: WBC at least 3000/mm3 Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3 Hepatic: Bilirubin less than 2.0 mg/dL Renal: Creatinine no greater than 1.5 mg/dL Cardiovascular: No congestive heart failure No New York Heart Association class III and IV heart disease Other: Not pregnant No concurrent medical problems that would increase the side effects or morbidity of chemoradiation No concurrent medical condition that would make patient ineligible to receive external beam radiation such as: Crohn's disease Inflammatory bowel disease No active infection requiring systemic antibiotics

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: Not specified Chemotherapy: No prior gemcitabine No prior chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer Endocrine therapy: Not specified Radiotherapy: No prior radiotherapy to the pancreas Surgery: Not specified