RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of dolastatin 10 in treating patients who have metastatic pancreatic cancer.

OBJECTIVES: I. Assess the antitumor activity of dolastatin 10 in patients with metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. II. Evaluate the qualitative and quantitative toxic effects of this therapy in these patients. III. Investigate the clinical pharmacology of this treatment.

OUTLINE: This is an open label, multicenter study. Patients receive dolastatin 10 IV bolus once every 21 days. Treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed every 3 months until death.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: This study will accrue 12-37 patients within 18.5 months.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically confirmed metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas Bidimensionally measurable lesions with sentinel lesions outside field of any prior radiation therapy No brain metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 18 and over Performance status: Zubrod 0-1 Life expectancy: At least 12 weeks Hematopoietic: Absolute granulocyte count at least 1500/mm3 Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3 Hepatic: Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 mg/dL Renal: Creatinine no greater than 1.5 mg/dL Cardiovascular: No active congestive heart failure No uncontrolled angina At least 6 months since prior myocardial infarction No uncontrolled hypertension Other: Not pregnant or nursing Fertile patients must use effective contraception No concurrent serious infection At least 5 years since prior malignancy except the following: Nonmelanoma skin cancer Carcinoma in situ of the cervix No overt psychosis or mental disability

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: No concurrent biologic therapy Chemotherapy: No prior chemotherapy for metastatic disease At least 6 months since prior adjuvant chemotherapy No concurrent chemotherapy Endocrine therapy: Not specified Radiotherapy: See Disease Characteristics At least 6 months since prior adjuvant chemoradiation to disease At least 2 weeks since prior radiotherapy and recovered No concurrent radiotherapy Surgery: At least 4 weeks since prior surgery and recovered No concurrent surgery Other: At least 4 weeks since prior investigational drug (including analgesics or antiemetics) No other concurrent anticancer therapy