RATIONALE: Collecting and storing samples of blood from patients with cancer and healthy participants to test in the laboratory may help the study of cancer in the future.

PURPOSE: This study is collecting and storing samples of blood from patients with pancreatic cancer and healthy participants.

OBJECTIVES:

• Establish a central pancreatic cancer specimen (including serum and peripheral blood lymphocytes) repository to serve as a resource for current or future scientific studies.
• Utilize the clinical database to perform clinicopathologic correlation with the results of those studies.
• Test new hypotheses as they emerge.

OUTLINE: This is a prospective study.

Blood is collected from patients with pancreatic cancer at baseline and then every 3-6 months for up to 2 years. All other participants have blood collected at baseline and complete questionnaires at baseline and then every 3-6 months for up to 2 years. Serum and peripheral blood lymphocytes obtained from the blood samples are frozen and stored.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 200 patients and 200 other participants will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Meets 1 of the following criteria:

  • Histologically confirmed pancreatic malignant neoplasm

  • Serologically or image-confirmed diagnosis of pancreatitis or nonmalignant pancreatic disease

  • Healthy, at-risk participant meeting the following criteria:

    • Smoker, diabetic, and/or has a family history of pancreatic cancer

  • Healthy participant (no history of cancer)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Not specified

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• Not specified

The three cohorts are: 1) Healthy individuals, 2) At risk individuals and 3) Cancer patients.