Low Dose Upper Abdominal Radiation Therapy (LD-UART) + Gemcitabine in Patients With Advanced, Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer (PC)

Before entering this study the doctor will examine the patient and order blood tests. These tests will use approximately 10 ml of blood. Blood work should be done within 3 weeks prior to treatment.. Women of child-bearing potential are required to have a pregnancy test done within 7 days prior to the start of treatment . A CT or a PET/CT scan of the chest, abdomen and pelvis will be done within 4 weeks prior to starting treatment . All subjects participating in this study will receive radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Patients will get 4 cycles of chemotherapy along with radiation. Each cycle of chemotherapy consists of gemcitabine given i.v. on day 1 and day 8 of treatment. XRT is given on days 1 and 2 and on days 8 and 9 twice a day. This works out to 8 treatments of XRT per course of chemo. Overall, a total of 32 treatments of radiation therapy will be given during the 4 sessions of chemotherapy. Blood work for CBC with differential and platelets will be done prior to each dose of chemotherapy.The investigational portion of this study is the radiation therapy given to the abdomen on the same day and the day after the patient receives chemotherapy. Three-Four weeks after treatment completion the patient will be evaluated again. The treating physician will examine the patient and order blood tests. These tests will use approximately 10 ml of blood. The physician will also order a repeat CT or PET/CT to compare the disease status after treatment. These tests are not experimental and are part of routine check-ups of patients with pancreatic cancer. Patients will be followed for survival. Protected health information will not be reviewed by someone other than the patient's provider to identify potential subjects.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients are eligible if they have newly diagnosed histologically confirmed locally advanced or metastatic tumors of the pancreas. Patients must be felt to be unresectable by surgical criteria or felt to be medically inoperable. Patients may also be Stage IV with metastatic disease to the liver. Patients with bone and/or lung metastasis may be included at the investigators discretion.
• Patients must have measurable disease by CT scan.
• Patients must be able to give informed consent. Patients must be older than 18 years of age.
• Patients should have adequate bone marrow, renal, and hepatic function including: Bilirubin less than 1.25 x institutional normal LDH SGPT, SGOT, and alkaline phosphatase less than3 x institutional normal Serum creatinine less than or equal to 3 mg/dl. Absolute neutrophil count of greater than 1500 Hemoglobin greater than 9 gm per dl Platelet count greater than 100,000 WBC greater than 3000 cells per mcl
• Women of child-bearing potential must be agreeable to adequate contraception.(hormonal or barrier method of birth control) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation.)
• Patients must have a Karnofsky performance status of greater than or equal 60 or Zubrod of less or equal to 2.
• Life expectancy of at least 3 months.
• May have had a second malignancy or multiple malignancies if adequately controlled by clinical means. patients with more than one type of cancer must be cleared by the principal investigator.
• Patients must be at least 1 week from any major operative procedure.

10 .Patients may have brain metastasis if these brain metastasis are well controlled by usual clinical criteria and if the life expectancy is at least 3 months. Any patient with brain metastasis must be cleared by the principal investigator.

Exclusion criteria

• Active infection requiring intravenous (IV) antibiotics at the time of entry.
• Cerebral metastasis which has not been adequately controlled.
• Significant malnutrition, cachexia, inundation or inability to give informed consent by clinical assessment.
• Concurrent chemotherapy not prescribed in this protocol.
• Any significant medical problems such as diabetes, cardiomyopathy or hypertension which is not reasonably controlled
• Prior radiation or chemotherapy