Active clinical trials for "Myelodysplastic Syndromes"

The are a variety of cancerous diseases of the blood and bone marrow that can be potentially cured by bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Diseases like leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma are among the conditions that can be treated with BMT. Some patients with these diseases can be treated with medical chemotherapy alone. However, patients who relapse following chemotherapy are usually not curable with additional chemotherapy treatments. The only option known to provide a potential cure if this occurs is BMT. Allogenic transplants are cells collected from relatives of the patient. The transplant requires additional high intensity chemotherapy and radiation in order to destroy cancerous cells. In the process, many normal bone marrow cells are also destroyed. This is the reason for transplanting stem cells. The stem cells help to build new functioning bone marrow, red cells, white cells, and platelets. In addition, the immune cells from the donor are implanted into the recipient s body and help to fight off infection and kill remaining cancerous cells. Unfortunately, the powerful doses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy associated with allogenic BMT have toxic side effects and often make BMTs too dangerous to attempt in many patients. In order to reduce the complications of BMT, and make it a safer available option for patients with cancers of the blood and bone marrow, researchers have developed a new approach to the BMT. In this study researchers plan to use stem cells collected from the blood stream of patient s relatives rather than from the bone marrow (blood progenitor/stem cell transplant). In addition, researchers plan to use low doses of chemotherapy and no radiation therapy to reduce side effects. The majority of the cancer killing effect will be the responsibility of the stem cell transplant rather than the chemotherapy.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Peripheral stem cell transplantation may allow the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more cancer cells. Isotretinoin may help cancer cells develop into normal white blood cells. PURPOSE: Phase I/II trial of topotecan, fludarabine, cytarabine, and filgrastim followed by peripheral stem cell transplantation or isotretinoin in treating patients who have acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, or recurrent or refractory acute lymphocytic leukemia.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of dolastatin 10 in treating patients who have refractory or relapsed acute leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia in blast phase, or myelodysplastic syndrome.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Bone marrow transplantation may allow the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy plus donor bone marrow transplantation in treating patients who have hematologic cancer.

RATIONALE: Peripheral stem cell transplantation may be able to replace immune cells that were destroyed by chemotherapy or radiation therapy used to kill tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of peripheral stem cell transplantation from related donors to prevent graft-versus-host disease in treating patients with hematologic cancer.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining chemotherapy with bone marrow transplantation may allow doctors to give higher doses of chemotherapy and kill more cancer cells. It is not yet known whether chemotherapy is more effective with or without bone marrow transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of chemotherapy with or without bone marrow transplantation in treating children who have acute myeloid leukemia.

Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of combining interleukin-12 and interferon alfa in treating patients who have residual, recurrent, or metastatic malignant melanoma or other advanced cancer that has not responded to standard therapy. Interleukin-12 may stimulate a person's white blood cells to kill cancer cells. Interferon alfa may interfere with the growth of the cancer cells. Combining interleukin-12 with interferon alfa may kill more cancer cells.

RATIONALE: Umbilical cord blood transplantation may allow doctors to give higher doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy and kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying allogeneic umbilical cord blood transplantation to see how well it works when given with chemotherapy or radiation therapy in treating patients with high-risk hematologic cancer.

To evaluate if HLA-mismatched, unrelated-donor umbilical cord blood stem and progenitor cell units (UCBU) offered a clinically acceptable alternative to matched unrelated-donor allogeneic bone marrow for transplantation with 180-day disease free survival as the endpoint. HLA typing was performed using DNA-base high resolution methods to determine HLA alleles. Patients with "true" HLA 3/6 and 4/6 matches were evaluated. In addition, a separate study in adults addressed the problem of limited cell dose and engraftment failure. The study was not planned as a randomized comparative clinical trial. Instead, it is a phase II/III efficacy study.

This phase I trial studies the side effects and best dose of PLX51107 and how well it works with azacitidine in treating patients with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. PLX51107 may stop the growth of cancer cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as azacitidine, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Giving PLX51107 and azacitidine may work better than azacitidine alone in treating patients with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome.