Active clinical trials for "Hematologic Neoplasms"

Participants in this study have a hematologic malignancy (a disorder in the bone marrow that affects the body's ability to create blood) that might benefit from receiving an allogeneic stem cell transplant (meaning the cells come from a donor) from a family member or nearly identical matched donor. The donor may either be a matched sibling, a mismatched family member, or an unrelated person. Usually these patients are given high doses of chemotherapy before receiving a stem cell transplant to keep their immune system from rejecting the donor stem cells and to kill any diseased cells that remain in the body. However, this group of patients have a high risk of developing possibly life-threatening treatment-related side effects such as infections, damage to vital organs such as lungs, liver, kidney and heart, as well as graft versus host disease (GVHD). Instead of the high dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy usually given before a transplant, this research study uses a new pre-transplant combination of three drugs, Fludarabine, Anti-CD45 and CAMPATH-1H with low dose radiotherapy. Fludarabine is a chemotherapy drug while Anti-CD45 and CAMPATH-1H are antibodies against certain types of blood cells, including those which are causing this disease. CAMPATH-1H is particularly important because it stays active in the body for a long time after it is given, which means it may work longer to prevent GVHD symptoms. Anti-CD45 may help in eradicating residual malignant cells. All these agents also help in preventing rejection of donor stem cells. This study is designed to give a less intense chemotherapy and radiotherapy, so that the life-threatening toxicities of conventional high dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy regimen can be reduced, while maintaining the ability to cure cancer.

This is a dose-escalation study to determine the maximum tolerated dose and toxic effects of clofarabine in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and other acute leukemias. Clofarabine is a synthesized hybrid nucleoside analog, which is believed to possess the better qualities of fludarabine and chlorodeoxyadenosine, the 2 most active agents against lymphoproliferative disorders. Thus, it is hoped that this drug will be more active and less toxic than similar drugs.

The purpose of this study is to determine the response rate of patients with T-cell malignancies to combination therapy using interferon-alpha (Roferon) and Isotretinoin (Accutane).

The goal of this clinical research study is to find the highest dose of Tezacitabine (FMdC) which can be safely given as a continuous infusion by vein to patients with hematologic malignancies. The general safety and effectiveness of this drug will also be studied.

To compare the safety and efficacy of piperacillin/tazobactam (4 g/500 mg) administered intravenously every 6 hours to cefepime (2 g) administered intravenously every 8 hours for the empiric treatment of neutropenic fever in patients with a hematologic malignancy or lymphoma.

Relapsed disease is the most common cause of death in children with hematological malignancies. Patients who fail high-intensity conventional chemotherapeutic regimens or relapse after stem cell transplantation have a poor prognosis. Toxicity from multiple therapies and elevated leukemic/tumor burden usually make these patients ineligible for the aggressive chemotherapy regimens required for conventional stem cell transplantation. Alternative options are needed. One type of treatment being explored is called haploidentical transplant. Conventional blood or bone marrow stem cell transplant involves destroying the patient's diseased marrow with radiation or chemotherapy. Healthy marrow from a donor is then infused into the patient where it migrates to the bone marrow space to begin generating new blood cells. The best type of donor is a sibling or unrelated donor with an identical immune system (HLA "match"). However, most patients do not have a matched sibling available and/or are unable to identify an acceptable unrelated donor through the registries in a timely manner. In addition, the aggressive treatment required to prepare the body for these types of transplants can be too toxic for these highly pretreated patients. Therefore doctors are investigating haploidentical transplant using stem cells from HLA partially matched family member donors. Although haploidentical transplant has proven curative in many patients, this procedure has been hindered by significant complications, primarily regimen-related toxicity including graft versus host disease (GVHD), and infection due to delayed immune reconstitution. These can, in part, be due to certain white blood cells in the graft called T cells. GVHD happens when the donor T cells recognize the patient's (the host) body tissues are different and attack these cells. Although too many T cells increase the possibility of GVHD, too few may cause the recipient's immune system to reconstitute slowly or the graft to fail to grow, leaving the patient at high-risk for infection. However, the presence of T cells in the graft may offer a positive effect called graft versus malignancy or GVM. With GVM, the donor T cells recognize the patient's malignant cells as diseased and, in turn, attack these diseased cells. For these reasons, a primary focus for researchers is to engineer the graft to provide a T cell depleted product to reduce the risk of GVHD, yet provide a sufficient number of cells to facilitate immune reconstitution, graft integrity and GVM. In this study, patients were given a haploidentical graft engineered to with specific T cell parameter values using the CliniMACS system. A reduced intensity, preparative regimen was used to reduce regimen-related toxicity and mortality. The primary goal of this study is to evaluate overall survival in those who receive this study treatment.

This study will investigate the safety and effectiveness of a new stem cell transplant procedure to treat acute or chronic leukemia, multiple myeloma, myelodysplastic syndrome, Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in HIV-infected patients. HIV-infected patients usually are not offered bone marrow transplant treatments because they are at increased risk of dying from the intense chemotherapy and radiation therapy used for the procedure. This study uses a modified procedure, transplanting stem cells instead of bone marrow, designed to be less dangerous for such patients. Patients will also undergo a procedure called gene transfer to try to halt progression of their HIV infection. The procedure in this study differs from standard bone marrow transplantation in three ways: Stem cells will be transplanted instead of bone marrow. (Stem cells, which are produced by the bone marrow, mature into the different blood components-white and red cells and platelets.) The stem cell donor will be given a drug that releases these cells from their bone marrow into the blood stream. The cells will then be collected from the donor by apheresis, a procedure in which whole blood is drawn, the stem cells separated and removed, and the rest of the blood returned to the donor.); The procedure will use lower doses of chemotherapy than the conventional method, and will not use radiation therapy; or A laboratory-manufactured gene designed to obstruct HIV reproduction will be inserted into the stem cells, rendering future cells that develop from resistance to the virus. Prospective patients will be tested for matching with an HIV-negative donor (family member) and will undergo a medical history, physical examination and several tests (e.g., breathing tests, X-rays, etc.) to determine eligibility for the study. Study participants will then undergo apheresis to collect white blood cells called lymphocytes. Stem cells will be collected from the donor. Half the donated cells will have the HIV-resistant gene inserted; the other half will have a "control" gene inserted. Additional stem cells collected a second day will not be manipulated. All the donor cells will be frozen until transplantation. Patients will be given drugs (cyclophosphamide, fludarabine and cyclosporin) to prevent the donated cells from being rejected and to prevent them from damaging the patient's organs. The thawed stem cells will then be infused through a vein. After 30, 60 and 100 days, bone marrow cells and circulating lymphocytes will be checked to see how many are of donor cell origin. If less than 100 percent are of donor origin, more lymphocytes will be transfused. Patients will have physical examinations and blood tests once or twice a week for 2 to 3 months with and then will be followed periodically for at least 5 years.

Background: Allogeneic blood and marrow stem cell transplantation (BMT) plays an important role in the curative treatment of a number of pediatric malignancies. Unfortunately, the success of conventional allogeneic BMT is limited in part by the multiple toxicities associated with myeloablative preparative regimens. Non-myeloablative pre-transplant regimens are associated with less toxic side effects than standard BMT. Recently, a novel immunosuppressive, non-myeloablative pre-transplant chemotherapy regimen has been shown to facilitate complete donor engraftment in an adult trial at the NCI. Objectives: The primary objective of this protocol is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this treatment approach in pediatric patients with hematopoietic malignancies Eligibility: Inclusion Criteria Age: Patient must be greater than or equal to 5 years and less than 22 years of age. Diagnosis: Hodgkin s and Non-Hodgkin s Lymphoma: Refractory disease or relapse after salvage regimen. Acute Myelogenous Leukemia: History of bone marrow relapse in remission (CR) #2 or greater. Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia: History of bone marrow relapse in CR #2 or greater (CR#1 with Philadelphia chromosome positive or prior induction failure). Acute Hybrid Leukemia including mixed lineage, biphenotypic and undifferentiated: History of bone marrow relapse in CR #2 or greater (CR#1 with Philadelphia chromosome positive or prior induction failure). Myelodysplastic Syndrome: RAEB or RAEB-t with less than 10% blasts in marrow and blood. Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia: Chronic phase or accelerated phase with less than 10% blasts in marrow and blood. Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia: less than 10% blasts in marrow and blood. Prior Therapy: Chemotherapy to achieve above criteria allowed. Prior BMT allowed as long as at least day 100+ post-prior BMT, no evidence of GVHD, and no detectable residual donor chimerism. Donor: First degree related donors, who are HLA matched (single HLA-A or B locus mismatch allowed), weight greater than or equal to 15 kilograms, and who meet standard donation criteria will be considered. The same donor from a prior BMT is allowed. ECOG Performance Status: 0, 1, or 2. and life expectancy: greater than 3 months. Liver Function: Serum direct bilirubin less than 2.0 mg/dL and serum ALT and AST values less than or equal to 2.5x upper limit of normal. (Values above these levels may be accepted if due to malignancy.) Renal Function: Age adjusted normal serum creatinine or Cr clearance greater than or equal to 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2). Pulmonary Function: DLCO greater than or equal to 50%. Cardiac Function: LVEF greater than or equal to 45% by MUGA or LVSF greater than or equal to 28% by ECHO Exclusion Criteria Active CNS malignancy: Tumor mass on CT or leptomeningeal disease. (Patients with a history of CNS involvement and no current evidence of CNS disease are allowed.) HIV infection, active hepatitis B or C infection: HbSAg or HCV seropositive and elevated liver transaminases. Fanconi Anemia. Lactating or pregnant females. Design: Pilot Study Initial evaluation: Patient and donor will be screened for eligibility. G-CSF primed bone marrow derived stem cells will be collected from the donor. Induction/Consolidation chemotherapy: 1 to 3 cycles will be given every 22 days depending on disease response, CD4 count, and toxicities. Lymphoma: fludarabine, etoposide, doxorubicin, vincristine, cyclophohamide, prednisone, and filgrastim (EPOCH-fludarabine). Leukemia and MDS: Fludarabine, cytarabine, and filgrastim (FLAG). Transplantation: Fludarabine and cyclophosphamide will be administered over 4 days followed by bone marrow transplant. Patients will remain hospitalized until bone marrow recovery. Patients will be monitored closely at the NIH for at least 100 days post-BMT. Post-transplant CNS prophylaxis for ALL: Standard post-transplant CNS prophylaxis will be employed with intrathecal methotrexate to decrease the risk of CNS relapse for all patients with ALL. Total number of recipient and donors to be accrued is 56.

Nutritional therapy implementation in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) have undergone changes recently due to new conditioning regimen and graft versus disease prophylaxis, novel enteral and parenteral nutrition solutions: the value of enteral nutrition is increasing, the indications for parenteral nutrition are becoming more strict. The study aims to identify the role of parenteral nutrition in the context of rapidly changing supportive care approaches in HSCT

For patients with refractory acute leukemia, allogeneic stem cell transplantation is the only curative therapy. Only 20% of patients may achieve long-term survival mostly due to relapse or nor-relapse mortality (NRM). In previous study, we demonstrated that intensive leukemia debulking chemotherapy FLAG-IDA sequential with Flu-BU conditioning is feasible with ~40% long-term survival. In the study, we further modified the chemotherapy with cladribine replacing fludarabine aiming a more potent anti-leukemia effect. Meanwhile, we reduce the dose of busulfan for patients with poor performance status and age over 45 aim to reduce the NRM. All patients will also receive post-transplantation maintenance therapy with low-dose decitabine to prevent relapse.