Chemotherapy Compared to Biological Therapy in Treating Patients With Cancer of the Pancreas

OBJECTIVES: I. Compare the efficacy of CYTOIMPLANT (intratumor implants of allogeneic peripheral blood mononuclear cells sensitized against patient alloantigens by mixed lymphocyte culture) vs gemcitabine in patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. II. Compare the overall survival, progression free survival, objective tumor response, time to treatment failure, and quality of life of these patients. III. Compare the safety and toxicities of CYTOIMPLANT vs gemcitabine in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a randomized, open label, multicenter study. Patients are randomly assigned (2:1 ratio in favor of CYTOIMPLANT arm) to one of two treatment arms. Arm I: Patients receive gemcitabine IV weekly for 7 weeks, followed by 1 week of rest. In subsequent courses, patients then receive gemcitabine IV weekly for 3 weeks followed by a week of rest. Courses are repeated every 4 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Arm II: Patients undergo leukapheresis to collect lymphocytes. Patient lymphocytes are mixed with donor lymphocytes at the sponsor labs. The mixture is implanted into the tumor using endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle injection. This process may be repeated in the fifth month using different donor's lymphocytes. Follow up assessments may include physical exams, lab tests, CT scans, and quality of life assessments at 4 weeks and at 3, 5, 7, 9, and 12 months from the date of randomization. Patients are then contacted every 3 months to assess status. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 150 patients will be accrued for this study.