Are there any trials for pancreatic cancer going on now?

@skipper70
Welcome to Mayo Connect, Your family must be going through a very stressful time dealing with your grandson's condition. I hope you hear soon about referral to Mayo.

To answer your question about clinic trails: To see the clinical trails Mayo currently has, this site list all: https://www.mayo.edu/research/clinical-trials . You can search by location and keyword. Another website is the government's site: https://clinicaltrials.gov/

Your providers may be able to suggest clinical trials that are target at you grandson's condition.

How old is your grandson?

I recommend you contact Pancan.org. They will assign a case worker and help you to find clinical trials that fit your grandson’s disease profile as well as locations. You may need to make many of the calls yourself if his oncologist is unwilling or unable to assist. I was able to find a trial that I am currently in with this approach. Best of luck to you both.

Thank you so much. I hope all goes well for you.

I will go on that site, today and also give the info to him.

He turned 40 last week.

Try this web site for plane English explanation of clinical trials. http://www.tricanhealth.com/

@skipper706, here are additional discussions that might interest you:
- Clinical trials related discussions: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/pancreatic-cancer/?search=clinical+trials#discussion-listview

How is your grandson doing?

Right now he is off meds to build his blood up, he has gotten his referal to Mayo for a second opinion. Thanks so much.Loni

Sometimes in patients that have a diagnosis at a young age, there can be a germline (inherited) mutation involved. If there is a history of cancer on either side of the family, this would trigger having a liquid biopsy ordered to look for specific mutations that may be targetable. While major centers with a pancreas program are doing this testing more frequently, sites that are not specialized in pancreatic cancer do it without mentioning it.

The other type of mutation involved with pancreatic cancer is a somatic mutation. These occur sporadically/spontaneously and are associated with lifestyle habits such as tobacco, alcohol, obesity, poor diet/processed foods, environmental factors such as air pollution and exposure to toxic chemicals. A test called Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) is used by testing a tumor sample for these types of mutations and actionable biomarkers. A number of US troops that were stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan working the burn pits developed pancreatic cancer 17-18 years after initial exposure. The same thing happened to first responders at the WTC site in NYC and in residents that lived south of Canal Street. There is a compensation fund available to these patients to assist in medical expenses and travel to clinical trials.

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (#PanCAN.org) has a free clinical trial finder service by calling 877.272.6226, M-F, 7:00am-5:00pm PT and speaking with a case manger. That person will use information from the genetic and genomic testing and the medical file to find clinical trials that are potentially a good match. There are on-line self-finders at LetsWinPC.org and TriCanHealth.com for doing trial searches.

The best place I found useful is https://clinicaltrials.gov/
They have all the trials. The search function a lot better than other sites I’ve used.

You probably also want to get in touch with mayo and create an account so you can make your grandson’s data available to be reviewed. It takes time to line up the appointment