Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Histologically or cytologically confirmed ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas

- Stage IV, unresectable disease

- Assessable disease by endoscopic ultrasound or CT guidance

- Tissue that is assessed by the Investigator as being accessible to biopsy

- No known brain metastases

- Patients with stable symptoms within the past 4 weeks, on a stable dose of
steroids, and able to give informed consent are eligible

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- WHO performance status 0-1

- Life expectancy ≥ 12 weeks

- Hemoglobin ≥ 9.0 g/dL

- Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1.5 x 10^9/L

- Platelet count ≥ 100 x 10^9/L

- Serum bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)

- ALT ≤ 2.5 times ULN (≤ 5 times ULN if due to liver metastases)

- PT ≤ 1.5 times ULN

- Creatinine clearance ≥ 50 mL/min (uncorrected)

- Not pregnant or nursing

- Negative pregnancy test

- Fertile patients must use two forms of highly effective contraception (females) 4
weeks prior to, during, and for 6 months after completion of study therapy or 1 form
of highly effective contraception (males) during and for 6 months after completion of
study therapy

- Written (signed and dated) informed consent and capable of cooperating with treatment
and follow-up

- No nonmalignant systemic disease, including active uncontrolled infection, that
confers a high medical risk to the patient

- No known serologically positive HIV or hepatitis B or C infection

- No other concurrent malignancies except adequately treated cone-biopsied carcinoma in
situ of the uterine cervix, basal or squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, or cancer
survivors who have undergone potentially curative therapy for a prior malignancy,
have no evidence of that disease ≥ 5 years, and are deemed at negligible risk for
recurrence

- No concurrent congestive heart failure

- No prior history of cardiac disease (New York Heart Association class III-IV
disease), cardiac ischemia, or cardiac arrhythmia

- No other condition that, in the investigator's opinion, would not make the patient a
good recommendation for the clinical trial

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- See Disease Characteristics

- Recovered from prior treatments

- No prior chemotherapy for advanced disease

- Adjuvant chemotherapy allowed provided it is completed > 6 months prior to study
treatment. If adjuvant gemcitabine was given, the patient must have tolerated a
dose of at least 800mg/m^2

- No major thoracic or abdominal surgery from which the patient has not yet recovered

- No concurrent participation or planned participation in another interventional
clinical study

- Concurrent participation in an observational study allowed

- No concurrent warfarin

- Low molecular weight heparin allowed

- No concurrent radiotherapy (except palliative for bone pain), endocrine therapy, or
immunotherapy

- No other concurrent anticancer therapy or investigational drugs