Clinical Trials Search at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

This phase II trial studies whether adding pembrolizumab to olaparib (standard of care) works better than olaparib alone in treating patients with pancreatic cancer with germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations that has spread to other places in the body (metastatic). BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes that produce tumor suppressor proteins. These proteins help repair damaged deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and, therefore, play a role in ensuring the stability of each cells genetic material. When either of these genes is mutated, or altered, such that its protein product is not made or does not function correctly, DNA damage may not be repaired properly. As a result, cells are more likely to develop additional genetic alterations that can lead to some types of cancer, including pancreatic cancer. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as pembrolizumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Olaparib is an inhibitor of PARP, a protein that helps repair damaged DNA. Blocking PARP may help keep tumor cells from repairing their damaged DNA, causing them to die. PARP inhibitors are a type of targeted therapy. The addition of pembrolizumab to the usual treatment of olaparib may help to shrink tumors in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

This trial tests the use of a disposable perfusion phantom (P4) to decrease errors in calculating the blood flow of a tissue with DCE-MRI. DCE-MRI is used calculate blood flow of various tissues including tumors. Blood flow often serves as a critical indicator showing a disease status. For example, a pancreatic tumor has typically low blood flow, so it can be used as an indicator to identify the presence of a pancreatic tumor. In addition, an effective therapy may result in the increase of blood flow in a pancreatic tumor during the early period of treatment. Therefore, DCE-MRI may be used to determine whether the undergoing therapy is effective or not by measuring the change of blood flow in the pancreatic tumor and may help doctors decide whether to continue the therapy or try a different one. Unfortunately, the measurement of blood flow using DCE-MRI is not accurate. The use of an artificial tissue, named "phantom" or P4, together with a patient may help to reduce errors in DCE-MRI because errors will affect the images of both the patient and the phantom. Because it is known how the blood flow of the phantom appears when no errors are present, the phantom may be used to detect what kinds of errors are present in the image, how many errors are present in the image, and how to remove errors from the image.