Neoadjuvant Plus Adjuvant or Only Adjuvant Nab- Paclitaxel Plus Gemcitabine for Resectable Pancreatic Cancer

Brief summary public domain (ClinicalTrials.gov)

NEONAX is an interventional, prospective, randomized, controlled, open label, two sided survival phase II studies against a fixed survival probability, with an unconnected analysis of the results in both experimental arms. Determining the impact of 2 cycles of Perioperative nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine followed by surgery and 4 cycles of adjuvant nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine or 6 cycles of adjuvant nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine on the Disease free survival (DFS) rate at 18 months post randomization

Detailed description public domain (ClinicalTrials.gov)

The planned trial will enable us to address the following issues: * Identification of patients who benefit from surgery. Tumor progress during intensified Perioperative chemotherapy is likely to indicate a particularly poor prognosis suggesting that these patients would not have benefitted from immediate surgery. * Assess tumor response/downsizing using nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine also at the molecular level * Can we achieve a better systemic tumor control or reduce the metastatic spread using nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine compared to adjuvant gemcitabine * Examining the effect of a more efficacious chemotherapy regimen (nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine) in the adjuvant setting * Defining the impact of a perioperative or adjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel on DFS and 3-year Overall survival (OS) Histopathological tumor regression will be evaluated in addition to tumor size measurement according to Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST). We will establish a histopathological tumor regression score to evaluate the efficacy of the neoadjuvant treatment. For this score we will examine tumor core biopsies obtained prior to neoadjuvant treatment and histological tumor specimen after surgery in both arms. To reliably determine R0 resections, the resected specimen will be prepared for pathology in a defined manner according to the procedure set out in the German S3 guidelines for pancreatic cancer. This trial provides the unique opportunity in pancreatic cancer to obtain material prior to and after surgery for biomarker analysis and correlation with outcome. We will perform pharmacogenomic candidate gene analysis of hENT1 (human equilibrative nucleoside transporter-1), CDA (cell differentiation agent), DCK (Desoxycytidin-Kinase) and 5´nucleotidase in both arms.