Bortezomib and Carboplatin in Treating Patients With Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate overall survival (OS) at 6 months with the combination of bortezomib and carboplatin in patients who previously received 1 prior regimen for metastatic pancreatic cancer. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate the objective tumor response rate, the duration of response, time to tumor progression, and overall survival. II. To evaluate biological effects on peripheral blood mononuclear cells. III. To evaluate the safety profile of this combination. IV. To evaluate archival tissue for epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and E-cadherin and Zeb-1. OUTLINE: Patients receive bortezomib intravenously (IV) on days 1, 4, 8, and 11 and carboplatin intravenously (IV) over 30 minutes on day 1. Courses repeat every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 3 months.