Investigating Targetable Metabolic Pathways Sustaining Pancreatic Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

I. To describe and discover new insights into the glucose, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, amino acid, and lipid metabolic dependencies of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis of in vivo uniformly-labeled [13C]glucose (U-13C-glucose) labeled pancreatic cancer biopsies.

OUTLINE:

Patients receive uniformly-labeled [13C]glucose intravenously (IV) over 10 minutes and then over up to 120 minutes until time of biopsy. Patients then undergo surgery and biopsy per standard of care.

Inclusion criteria

• Male or female patients >= 18 years of age
• Pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients, previously diagnosed by biopsy, who are candidates for intended curative resection either with or without neoadjuvant chemotherapy
• Willing to undergo mandatory intraoperative small excisional and core biopsies (4-6 passes) of tumor and normal tissue for research purposes at the time of proposed pancreatectomy
• 16 patients will be enrolled including 8 with no prior treatment and 8 treated with at least 3 months of neoadjuvant chemotherapy
• All patients must be able to understand the investigational nature of the study and give written informed consent prior to study entry

Exclusion criteria

• Patients receiving any anti-cancer therapy (chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and/or biologic therapy) for 8 patients; the other 8 patients will be treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy but no radiation, biologic or immunotherapy prior to surgery
• Is currently enrolled, or will enroll in, a different clinical study in which investigational therapeutic procedures are performed or investigational therapies are administered while participating in this study
• Concomitant active malignancy
• Is of child-bearing potential who has not had a recent negative pregnancy test done outside of this clinical trial (i.e., as part of standard preparation for diagnosis and treatment for her cancer)