Active clinical trials for "Myelodysplastic Syndromes"

RATIONALE: A peripheral stem cell transplant or an umbilical cord blood transplant from a donor may be able to replace blood-forming cells that were destroyed by chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Giving an infusion of the donor's white blood cells (donor lymphocyte infusion) after the transplant may help destroy any remaining cancer cells (graft-versus-tumor effect). Sometimes the transplanted cells can make an immune response against the body's normal cells. Methotrexate, cyclosporine, tacrolimus, or methylprednisolone may stop this from happening. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying how well a donor stem cell transplant or donor white blood cell infusions work in treating patients with hematologic cancer.

In this study, MGCD0103, a new anticancer drug under investigation, is given three times per week to elderly patients with previously untreated acute myelogenous leukemia/high risk myelodysplastic syndrome or adults with relapsed/refractory disease.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as cyclophosphamide, work in different ways to stop the growth of abnormal blood cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving cyclophosphamide together with donor lymphocytes that have been treated in the laboratory may be an effective treatment for myelodysplastic syndromes or myeloproliferative disorders. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying the best dose of donor lymphocytes when given together with cyclophosphamide in treating patients with myelodysplastic syndromes or myeloproliferative disorders.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as azacitidine and arsenic trioxide, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: This phase I/II trial is studying the side effects and best dose of azacitidine when given together with arsenic trioxide and to see how well they work in treating patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.

The purpose of this study is to find out what the maximal tolerated dose of Velcade can be given with thalidomide in patients with myelodysplasia.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of arsenic trioxide in treating patients who have myelodysplastic syndromes.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are bone marrow malignant diseases resulting in ineffective haematopoiesis and subsequently, blood cell count decrease. Patients have anaemia responsible of fatigue and high heart frequency, thrombocytopenia responsible of increased risk of bleeding and neutropenia responsible of increased risk of infection. The patients suffering from MDS also are at increased risk of developing acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML). Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) remains the only curative option for patients with aggressive MDS. However, these patients are frequently ineligible for this kind of treatment, because of, for instance, age and co-morbidities. Thus, other treatment options are needed and Azacytidine (AZA), a hypomethylating agent is then proposed. With this COMYRE observatory study, we wanted to analyse which patients undergo alloSCT, why they are not eligible to alloSCT if it is the case, the overall survival of all the patients and if there are some factors which can influence this survival. It could help us to better identify the best candidate for alloSCT and those for other treatments such as AZA.

The study compares two acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) prophylaxis regimens: efprezimod alfa vs placebo with the standard GVHD prophylaxis of tacrolimus / methotrexate. The study compares two acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) prophylaxis regimens: efprezimod alfa/tacrolimus / methotrexate (efprezimod alfa/Tac/MTX) versus placebo/tacrolimus / methotrexate (placebo/Tac/MTX) in the setting of myeloablative conditioning (MAC), matched unrelated donor (MUD) allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in participants with acute leukemia (AML/ALL) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). The study agent, efprezimod alfa, will be administered through IV infusion on days -1, 14, and 28 at the dose of 480mg, 240 mg and 240mg, respectively. The placebo will be 100 ml normal saline intravenous (IV) solution.

The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if pacritinib, either alone or in combination with azacitidine or decitabine, can help to control MDS. The safety of this drug and drug combination will also be studied.

This research study is a Phase II clinical trial. Phase II clinical trials test the effectiveness of an investigational intervention to learn whether the intervention, in this case, the GVAX vaccine, works in preventing MDS, CMML, or AML from relapsing after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. "Investigational" means that the vaccine is still being studied and that research doctors are trying to find out more about it-such as the side effects it may cause, and if the vaccine is effective. It also means that the FDA has not yet approved the vaccine for these types of cancer. Participants are being asked to participate in this trial because they have advanced myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML), or acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Investigators have determined that participants are a candidate for an allogeneic stem cell transplant as treatment for MDS/CMML/AML. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is a standard treatment for MDS/CMML/AML. It can be effective because the cells from the donor (also known as the graft) could form a new immune system that can fight against the MDS/CMML/AML cells in the body. This is also known as the "graft-versus-leukemia" or "GVL" effect. In patients with advanced MDS, CMML, or AML that is not in remission at the time of transplantation, relapse remains the number one cause of transplant failure. As such, this clinical trial is designed to assess whether adding a leukemia vaccine early after transplantation could stimulate donor cells to fight cancer and improve transplant outcomes. In recent years, researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered that GVAX, a vaccine made from the patient's own cancer cells engineered to produce a protein called GM-CSF, can be effective in stimulating a powerful immune response specific to that cancer. GM-CSF is a naturally occurring hormone in the body that helps the immune system fight infections and diseases. The GVAX vaccine is made in the laboratory by using a virus (called adenovirus, which has been modified so it cannot cause illness) to insert the GM-CSF gene into tumor cells. The cells are then irradiated, which prevents them from being able to grow, before being administered to patients in a series of vaccinations. A previous phase I clinical trial using this GVAX vaccine in patients with MDS/AML after allogeneic transplantation demonstrated that the GVAX vaccine is safe, and the survival outcomes were encouraging. The current randomized phase II study will investigate this vaccine further and gather more information to assess the activity. Participants in this study will be "randomized" to receive either GVAX vaccination or placebo (a saline solution) vaccination. Randomization means participants are put into a group by chance. It is like flipping a coin. There is a 50% chance they will receive the GVAX vaccine and a 50% chance they will receive placebo. Neither participants nor investigators will know which participants will be receiving. The primary goal of this trial is to assess if there will be a difference in the percentage of cancer free survivors in the vaccinated vs. placebo group at 18 months after transplant.