Gemcitabine and Celecoxib in Treating Patients With Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine, use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Celecoxib may stop the growth of pancreatic cancer by stopping blood flow to the tumor and blocking the enzymes necessary for tumor cell growth. Combining gemcitabine with celecoxib may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving gemcitabine together with celecoxib works in treating patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

OBJECTIVES: * Determine the overall survival at 6 months in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer treated with gemcitabine and celecoxib. * Determine the objective tumor response, progression-free survival, and median survival of patients treated with this regimen. * Determine the safety and toxicity of this regimen in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a nonrandomized, open-label, multicenter study. Patients receive gemcitabine IV over 65 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15 and oral celecoxib twice daily on days 1-28. Courses repeat every 4 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed monthly for 6 months from study entry and then every 3 months thereafter. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 40 patients will be accrued for this study within 8 months.