Biomarkers in Predicting Response to Treatment in Patients Who Have Undergone Surgery for Pancreatic Cancer

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tumor tissue in the laboratory from patients with cancer may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. It may also help doctors predict how patients will respond to treatment. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is looking at biomarkers in predicting response to treatment in patients who have undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer.

OBJECTIVES: * To determine if a method of extracting and identifying biomarkers (i.e., secreted cytokines and growth factors) from tissues of the quantity obtained from typical biopsy can now be applied in the setting of pancreatic cancer * To correlate pre-treatment biomarkers with recurrence, overall survival, and tumor response to radiotherapy and chemotherapy in patients with pancreatic cancer. OUTLINE: Tumor tissue specimens are obtained from the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center Human Tissue Acquisition Core and analyzed for biomarkers (e.g., integrity of DNA repair pathways as analyzed by Rad51 and phosphorylated DNA-PK foci formation). The biomarkers are correlated with clinical outcomes (recurrence, overall survival, and tumor response to treatment). Patients are followed for recurrence, relapse, and death from disease.