RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining radiation therapy with chemotherapy may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy plus radiation therapy in treating patients who have locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the efficacy of gemcitabine, cisplatin, and radiotherapy, in terms of 1-year survival, in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.
• Determine the toxicity of this regimen in these patients.
• Determine the quality of life of patients treated with this regimen.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients undergo radiotherapy once daily five days a week for 5.5 weeks. Patients receive gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes followed by cisplatin IV over 1 hour twice a week for the first 3 weeks of radiotherapy. Beginning 4 weeks after the completion of radiotherapy, patients receive gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15. Treatment repeats every 28 days for a total of 3 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Quality of life is assessed at baseline, at completion of radiotherapy, at completion of chemotherapy, and 3 months after completion of therapy.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for 1 year.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 20-47 patients will be accrued for this study within 12-28 months.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed unresectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreas

• No cystadenocarcinoma of the pancreas or pancreatic tumors of neuroendocrine origin

• Prior subtotal resection or gross residual disease

  • No microscopic residual disease only

• No metastatic disease outside of planned study radiotherapy field

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,500/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3

Hepatic:

• Bilirubin no greater than 2 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• AST no greater than 3 times ULN

Renal:

• Creatinine no greater than 1.5 times ULN

Other:

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• Able to maintain adequate oral nutrition
• No significant infection
• No other medical condition that would preclude study
• No other malignancy within the past 5 years except non-melanoma skin cancer
• No significant nausea or vomiting

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• No prior or concurrent biologic therapy

Chemotherapy:

• No prior chemotherapy
• No other concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

• Not specified

Radiotherapy:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior radiotherapy that would overlap planned study radiotherapy fields

Surgery:

• See Disease Characteristics
• At least 21 days since prior laparotomy