Active clinical trials for "Myelodysplastic Syndromes"

RATIONALE: Giving low doses of chemotherapy before a donor stem cell transplant using stem cells that closely match the patient's stem cells, helps stop the growth of cancer cells. It also stops the patient's immune system from rejecting the donor's stem cells. The donated stem cells may replace the patient's immune system and help destroy any remaining cancer cells (graft-versus-tumor effect). Giving an infusion of the donor's T cells (donor lymphocyte infusion) after the transplant may help increase this effect. Sometimes the transplanted cells from a donor can also make an immune response against the body's normal cells. Giving antithymocyte globulin before transplant and cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil after transplant may stop this from happening. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying how well a donor stem cell transplant works in treating patients with hematologic cancer, metastatic kidney cancer, or aplastic anemia.

The purpose of this study is to determine if AR-67 is effective in the treatment for patients with MDS.

RATIONALE: Umbilical cord blood transplantation may be able to replace immune cells that were destroyed by chemotherapy or radiation therapy. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well umbilical cord blood works as a source of stem cells in treating patients with types of cancer as well as other diseases.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are acquired clonal disorders of the bone marrow. The clinical consequences of MDS are bone marrow failure and a predisposition to develop acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Patients with 'low risk MDS' have less than 10% myeloblasts in the marrow and include the World Health Organization (WHO) subtypes refractory anaemia (RA), refractory anaemia with ring sideroblasts (RARS) and refractory anaemia with excess blasts-I (RAEB-I). This group of patients has a relatively low risk of leukaemic transformation and the major clinical problem is the manifestation of bone marrow failure. Up to 80% of these patients become red cell transfusion dependent. To date, the only curative therapy is allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Unfortunately, a median age at diagnosis of > 65 years excludes this type of therapy for most patients with MDS. The aim of treatment is, therefore, supportive therapy. Long term red cell transfusion therapy carries the problems of acute transfusion reactions: iron overload, alloantibody formation, poor venous access and the risk of transfusion transmitted infection. With time, such patients require increasing frequency of transfusion and obtain decreased length of benefit from transfusion. The quality of life of such patients is significantly reduced. Alternative therapies, therefore, aimed at promoting more effective haemopoiesis and reducing the need for red cell transfusion may improve quality of life, reduce the use of expensive resources such as red cells and iron chelation, and perhaps enhance survival. Combined darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp) plus G-CSF (Neupogen; filgrastim) in low risk MDS is better than best supportive care, with respect to haemoglobin and quality of life. The study will assess: the costs of this approach long-term outcomes clinical/laboratory parameters allowing early cessation of therapy in patients destined not to respond

In this trial, HLA-A2+ patients with active AML are vaccinated with a peptide from the leukemia-associated antigen WT1 together with immunological adjuvants keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) as T-helper protein and granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) 4 times bi-weekly, then monthly.

RATIONALE: Monoclonal antibodies such as gemtuzumab can locate tumor cells and either kill them or deliver tumor-killing substances to them without harming normal cells. PURPOSE: Randomized phase II trial to study the effectiveness of gemtuzumab in treating patients who have myelodysplastic syndrome.

The purpose of this study is to determine the safety and efficacy of DN-101 (calcitriol) in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome who are dependent on repeat blood transfusions.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining chemotherapy with peripheral stem cell transplantation may allow the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of peripheral stem cell transplantation with high-dose cytarabine in treating patients with myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myelogenous leukemia.

A novel method has been developed to expand natural (NK) cells and enhance their cytotoxicity against cancer cells while maintaining low killing capacity against non-transformed cells. In this method, donor NK cells are expanded by co-culture with the irradiated K562 cell line modified to express membrane bound IL-15 and 41BB ligand (K562-mb15-41BBL). Expression of these proteins in conjunction with unknown stimuli provided by K562 cells promotes selective growth of NK cells. Then, the expanded NK cell population is depleted of T cells to prevent graft versus host disease (GVHD). Expanded and activated NK cells showed powerful anti-leukemic activity against acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells in vitro and in animal models of leukemia.Unpublished laboratory results also demonstrated that T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) is extremely sensitive to the cytotoxicity exerted by the expanded and activated NK cells. The present study represents the translation of the laboratory findings into clinical application. The study proposes to determine the feasibility, safety and efficacy of infusing expanded NK cells into patients who have AML or T-lineage ALL which is resistant to standard therapy as demonstrated by persistent minimal residual disease (MRD). Patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), who are at high risk to develop AML will also be eligible for the study. In this patient cohort, the study will also investigate the in vivo lifespan and phenotype of the expanded NK cells. The main hypothesis to be tested in this study is that infusion of expanded activated NK cells can produce measurable clinical responses in patients with AML or T-ALL.

The study is designed to evaluate safety, immunogenicity, and preliminary anti-tumor activity of a multi-peptide immunotherapy (BB-MPI-03) at three peptide+adjuvant dose levels. The peptides stimulate cytotoxic T-cells targeting oncofetal antigen (OFA). Subjects with AML, MM, sMM, or MDS who are off treatment and with stable disease or better, or who are not eligible for or refuse allogeneic HSCT are to be enrolled. The study will be conducted at 2 to 4 study centers in the US.