Active clinical trials for "Graft vs Host Disease"

This is a bicentric, prospective, non randomized study. Pediatric and adult patients will be treated. Rationale: MSC have shown promising effects by reversal of severe therapy-resistant acute GvHD. As a common therapeutic line of action is not shared for steroid resistant GVHD, it is important to establish the toxicity and the feasibility of preparation and infusion of third party MSCs for acute steroid resistant GVHD and acute phases of chronic steroid resistant GVHD. A total of 10 patients (pediatric and adults) need to be enrolled in the study. Patients who present clinical signs of either acute or chronic steroid resistant GVHD will receive by intravenous infusion at least two fixed doses of mesenchymal stem cells with 5 to 7 days of interval one from the other, derived from HLA unrelated donor different from the HSC donor (third party donor) regardless of the rate of HLA mismatch. Primary objectives are to establish the feasibility and the toxicity of preparation and infusions of third party MSCs for the treatment of steroid resistant acute and acute phases of chronic grade II-IV GVHD. Secondary objectives are: To document the efficacy of MSC infusion in steroid resistant acute and acute phases of chronic GVHD grade II-IV. To document the rate of GVHD recurrence in MSCs infused patients. To document relapse of hematological malignancies post MSC infusions in patients undergoing MSCs treatment for steroid refractory GvHD. To document the overall survival of MSC infused patients for steroid refractory GvHD.

Steroids are still the first line treatment for established severe acute-graft-versus-host-disease (aGVHD), with a response rate of 30-50%, and there is no established and effective therapy for severe steroid-refractory (aGVHD). The outcome for patients is poor and overall survival low, with few patients alive at 2 years. In the case of failure after corticosteroid treatment, different therapeutic options have been introduced as second or third-line strategies. In this scenario, infusion of ex vivo expanded mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) has emerged as an additional tool for treatment of GVHD. The purpose of this work is conduct a study in patients with refractory and/or resistant GVHD corticosteroids treatment. It will be randomized into two groups: one group that will receive the MSCs and the other group will follow the acute GVHD steroid-resistant and/or refractory treatment according to the routines of the Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) service of Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre. It will be evaluated aspects of immune recovery early after MSCs infusion.

The present project is a prospective, multicenter, non-randomized, phase II trial which aims to evaluate the clinical impact and the safety of extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) using the Theraflex system in patients with refractory chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD) after any type of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or after donor lymphocyte infusion.

Topical preparations (eye drops) derived from the blood have become a relatively common treatment for more advanced forms of keratopathy. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of two blood components from donors (serum cord blood and serum from adult subject donor peripheral blood) in the treatment of severe keratopathies.

To assess the tolerability of the costimulation blocking agent abatacept (CTLA4-Ig) when added to the standard graft versus host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis regimen of a calcineurin inhibitor and methotrexate in patients receiving early alemtuzumab followed by fludarabine, thiotepa, melphalan, and alemtuzumab for conditioning.

Study Design: Treatment, Randomized, Open Label, Parallel Assignment,Safety/Efficacy Study. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) expanded ex-vivo infusion for the treatment of patients who have developed a newly diagnosed extensive or refractory chronic graft versus host disease (chronic GVHD) to the usual therapeutic measures.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors predict whether patients undergoing donor stem cell transplant will develop acute graft-versus-host disease. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying T cells to see how well they help in predicting acute graft-versus-host disease in patients undergoing donor stem cell transplant.

The primary goal of this study is to determine the safety and tolerability of a novel peptide - preimplantation factor (PIF-1) - in patients who develop acute steroid-resistant graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after matched bone marrow transplant (BMT). Following matched BMT, patients will be placed on standard GVHD preventive therapy (cyclosporine); those who do not respond to cyclosporine are placed on a high-dose steroid regimen for 3 days. Patients that do not respond to this standard treatment will be given PIF-1 subcutaneously for 14 days. Clinical data and samples will be collected, during PIF-1 administration and for an additional three months thereafter, to examine the long-term effect of PIF-1 treatment on the patients' GVHD status.

Chronic GVHD is the most common late complication following allogeneic stem cell transplantation. It has features resembling autoimmune disorders such as scleroderma, primary biliary cirrhosis, bronchiolitis obliterans, chronic immunodeficiency etc. Thus, chronic GVHD can lead to debilitating complications such as joint contractures, blindness, end-stage lung disease, etc so that chronic GVHD has a major impact both on survival as well as quality of life. Although its pathogenesis is still poorly unclear, it has been reported since 2000 that B cell-mediated immunity may also contribute to development of chronic GVHD other than T cells. Thus, targeting against B cell may be a useful treatment strategy in the treatment of chronic GVHD. The purpose of this study is to determine whether rituximab, an anti-CD20 monoclonal kimeric antibody is effective in the treatment of chronic graft-versus-host disease (chronic GVHD) refractory to steroid.

RATIONALE: Following stem cell transplantation, a major risk is graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). This occurs when donor immune cells that have been infused recognise the host's cells as 'foreign' and attack these cells. Prevention of GVHD relies upon depletion of donor immune T cells or drugs that block T cell function. However, these methods also increase the risk of life threatening infection. There is an important unmet need for better means of accelerating immune recovery following stem cell transplantation while avoiding GVHD. Pre-clinical studies have shown that infusion of donor CD62L- effector memory T cells (Tem) into the host improve immune recovery after allo-Stem Cell Transplant but do not cause GVHD. PURPOSE: This phase I dose escalation trial aims to determine the feasibility and safety of transfer of donor Tem following allogeneic stem cell transplantation.