Active clinical trials for "Anemia, Aplastic"

RATIONALE: Immunosuppressive therapies, such as alemtuzumab and cyclosporine, may improve bone marrow function and increase blood cell counts. Giving alemtuzumab together with cyclosporine may be an effective treatment for severe aplastic anemia or acquired marrow failure. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying the side effects of giving alemtuzumab together with cyclosporine and to see how well it works in treating patients with severe aplastic anemia or acquired marrow failure.

Rationale: Fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, anti-thymocyte globulin and low-dose total body irradiation (LD-TBI) may induce the engraftment cross the immunologic barrier in the setting of HLA-haploidentical allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. In addition, depletion of CD3 cells may contribute to prevent developing severe acute graft versus host disease (GVHD) in haploidentical transplantation. Purpose: Phase II trials to evaluate the efficacy of haploidentical stem cell transplantation with fixed dose of T cells after in vitro T cell depletion using CD3 monoclonal antibody for children with acquired severe aplastic anemia

Severe aplastic anemia (SAA)is characterized by the depletion of hematopoietic precursors associated with life-threatening complications. High-dose cyclophosphamide has been found to yield a complete response (CR) in adults and children with SAA.However, the optimal dosage of cyclophosphamide for patients in childhood remains unclear. So we explore the ideal dosage of cyclophosphamide for the treatment of children with SAA.

Our hypothesis is that ex vivo activated immune cells would produce multiple known and unknown potent hematopoietic cytokines, working in concert, these cytokines help stem cell growth and differentiation. Additionally, these cells travel and home to bone marrow as well as spleen and liver involved in hematopoietic activities, where direct cell-cell contact may be beneficial.

Severe aplastic anemia is a fatal disease and patients without HLA matched siblings need alternative treatment option. Cord blood transplantation (CBT) has become an alternative treatment means in various diseases, but it has not been proved to be good for severe aplastic anemia. Double units CBT is proposed to have better engraftment potential and and we reported successful double units UCBT after engraftment failure with single unit with promising result. To increase the engraftment potential, fludarabine, cyclophosphamide plus TBI conditioning regimen for double units cord blood transplantation was proposed for the patient with severe aplastic anemia without HLA-matched donor.

Severe and very severe aplastic anemia are life threatening disorders for which allogeneic stem cell transplant is only curative treatment. However, matched sibling donor (MSD) is available in only 25-35% cases. Pakistan has a population of around 203 million but there is no donor registry available so there is no option available for matched unrelated donor (MUD) transplants . Haploidentical transplant represents only curative option for patients lacking MSD. Protocols involving post transplant cyclophosphamide require Total body irradiation (TBI) and utilize peripheral blood stem cell(PBSC) as graft source. TBI is not available in most of transplant centres across Pakistan due to lack of availability , cost and lack of expertise. The investigators have conceived a novel TBI free conditioning regimen to be used for haplo-identical Hemtopoeitic stem cell transplant in acquired aplastic anemia patients

Severe acquired aplastic anaemia (SAA) is a life-threatening disease characterized by pancytopenia and hypoplastic bone marrow. Immunosuppressive treatment with antithymocyte globulin (ATG)and cyclosporine remain the standard regimen with response rates of 70% or more and excellent overall survival. However ,there are no clinical trials to illustrate the response and complete remission rate with different doses of ATG.And there are no data reported on children with SAA so far.

Feasibility and toxicity of haploidentical transplantation of CD3/CD19 depleted stem cells in combination with a toxicity reduced conditioning regimen or with standard conditioning regimens according to underlying disease.

Invasive fungal disease (IFD) is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy or transplantation. This current study aims to assess the impact of prophylactically using the broad-spectrum anti-fungal agent posaconazole on the incidence of IFD in high risk patients with aplastic anaemia and those undergoing intensive chemotherapy, for example for acute myeloid leukaemia, and allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

This pilot study evaluates safety of administration of red blood cell transfusions requested by patients based on their symptoms instead of levels of hemoglobin for the treatment of chronic anemia in patients with blood disorders.