PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:
I. Determine the 1-year survival rate in patients with locally advanced, unresectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreas treated with concurrent external beam radiotherapy, oxaliplatin, and fluorouracil followed by gemcitabine.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
I. Determine overall survival, time to disease progression, and confirmed response rate in patients treated with this regimen.
II. Determine toxicity of this regimen in these patients.
OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.
Patients undergo radiotherapy once daily, 5 days a week, for 5.5 weeks. Beginning concurrently with radiotherapy, patients receive oxaliplatin IV over 2 hours on days 1, 15, and 29 and fluorouracil IV continuously for 5.5 weeks. Beginning 4-6 weeks after the completion of chemoradiotherapy, patients receive gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes on days 1 and 8. Treatment with gemcitabine repeats every 21 days for 4 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
Patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for 1 year.