Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trials & Research

MSK is a major research institution. During your treatment for pancreatic cancer, your care team may ask if you want to join a clinical trial.

What is a clinical trial?

Clinical trials are research studies that test new treatments, procedures, or devices to see how well they work. They are an important part of helping to prevent, treat, and cure cancer. Almost every cancer treatment given to patients was first tested during a clinical trial.

MSK tests new treatments for pancreatic cancer. Treatment trials test new drugs, drug combinations, devices, and ways of doing procedures, surgery, or radiation therapy.

Sometimes a clinical trial gives you access to new therapies that are not yet available at most hospitals. Talk with your doctor about whether joining a clinical trial is right for you.

Clinical trials are designed to answer questions about:

Safety
Benefits
Side effects
Whether some people are helped more than others

MSK will start a clinical trial only if our researchers think we can improve methods for cancer:

Prevention
Treatment
Diagnosis
Screening

For more information, please read Clinical Trials at MSK: What You Need to Know

How MSK is researching new pancreatic cancer treatments

MSK is recruiting people for clinical trials researching new immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and precision medicine approaches for pancreatic cancer. These studies explore ways to target specific genetic mutations. They’re also looking at ways to improve the immune system’s response to cancer. Our researchers are trying new personal treatments based on each tumor’s traits.

Here are some of the ways MSK is exploring new treatments for pancreatic cancer:

An MSK clinical trial is testing a vaccine using messenger RNA along with another type of immunotherapy. We’re one of a few hospitals testing this treatment for pancreatic cancer.
We’re studying new treatments for pancreatic cancers with KRAS mutations. They’re common changes in cancer cells that help tumors grow. One trial is testing a treatment that targets the KRAS G12D mutation.
We’re evaluating new treatments for pancreatic cancers with certain genetic changes, including RAS mutations and MTAP loss. Researchers are studying whether using targeted therapies together can help slow or stop cancer growth.
We’re researching new ways to use immunotherapy drugs together for pancreatic cancer before surgery.
We’re researching new maintenance therapy for pancreatic cancer after surgery and chemotherapy. Maintenance therapy is treatment that helps keep the cancer from coming back.
Through our Pancreatic Tumor Registry, we study things that can raise your risk for pancreatic cancer. We’re looking at both environmental factors and inherited risks, passed on from parents to children. Many people who join this registry are living with pancreatic cancer or have family members who had it.

Our experts can talk with you about which clinical trial is right for you. Here are some of our new clinical trials:

You can see a current listing of MSK’s clinical trials for pancreatic cancer below.

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Trial phase:

32 Clinical Trials found

A Phase II Study of Olaparib or Placebo in Patients with Surgically Removed Pancreatic Cancer Who Have a BRCA1, BRCA2 or PALB2 Mutation

The purpose of this study is to see if one year of treatment with olaparib is better than observation alone in patients who had pancreatic cancer surgically removed and who have mutations in the BRCA1, BRCA2 or PALB2 genes. Olaparib is a type of anticancer medication called a PARP inhibitor, which may slow down the process cancer cells use to repair their DNA. Cancer cells need to repair their DNA to survive and grow.

New York City, Commack, Basking Ridge, Westchester, Monmouth, Bergen, Nassau

A Phase III Randomized Trial of Dose Escalated Radiation in Locally Advanced Pancreas Cancer (LAPC) Patients