Maintenance Therapy With Sunitinib or Observation in Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

RATIONALE: Sunitinib malate may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the tyrosine kinases needed for angiogenesis and cell growth. It is not yet known whether sunitinib malate is effective as maintenance therapy in delaying tumor progression in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who are progression-free after 6 months of induction chemotherapy. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying sunitinib malate as maintenance therapy to see how well it works compared with observation in avoiding tumor progression after induction chemotherapy in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.