Thalidomide to Chemotherapy Related Nausea and Vomiting in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy with a 5-year survival less than 10%. Approximately 80% of patients with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Chemotherapy is one of the major treatments for advanced pancreatic cancer. The Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer Trial (MPACT) has confirmed the efficacy of gemcitabine combined with nab-paclitaxel as the first-line treatment to metastatic pancreatic cancer. However, the side-effects related to gemcitabine combined with nab-paclitaxel including nausea/vomiting, insomnia, fatigue, nausea, and malnutrition have impaired the tolerability of the regimen. Thalidomide is an oral medication used to treat a number of cancers (e.g. multiple myeloma), graft-versus-host disease, and many skin disorders (e.g. complications of leprosy such as skin lesions). It caused severe malformations in babies born to mothers taking the drug for morning sickness in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Thalidomide works on the immune system to reduce inflammation. Thalidomide may enhance the tolerability of chemotherapy by reducing nausea/vomiting, improving sleeping quality, alleviating pain, and thus improving quality of life for patients with pancreatic cancer. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of Thalidomide on improving the quality of life for metastatic pancreatic cancer patients receiving gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel chemotherapy. One hundred patients will be randomly assigned to the experimental group (gemcitabine combined with nab-paclitaxel, Thalidomide) or the control group (gemcitabine combined with nab-paclitaxel). Rate of nausea/vomiting, index of sleep quality, severity of pain, quality of life, and overall survival are measured every four weeks.