Active clinical trials for "Myelodysplastic Syndromes"

RATIONALE: Collecting and storing samples of blood, urine, and tissue from patients undergoing a donor stem cell transplant to test in the laboratory may help the study of graft-versus-host disease in the future. PURPOSE: This research study is collecting and storing tissue and DNA samples from patients undergoing a donor stem cell transplant.

RATIONALE: Collecting and storing samples of bone marrow and tissue from patients to test in the laboratory may help the study of cancer. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is comparing proteases (enzymes that break down protein) in patients with prostate cancer that has spread to the bone with patients who do not have cancer that has spread to the bone.

Primary Objectives: To compare the neuropsychiatric (NP) and neurocognitive (NC) symptoms and assess the quality of life (QOL) in older patients (age > 18) with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) receiving different therapies, chemotherapy (Clofarabine + ara-C) or targeted therapies (PKC412 + low-dose ara-C, or R115777 + low-dose ara-C, or decitabine, or STI + low-dose ara-C). To determine whether there is a correlation between the number of packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusions and cognitive scores and/or QOL.

Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI) is committed to improvement and excellence in clinical research and correlative science. To this end, the SCRI Oncology Research Consortium will collect written consent from patients allowing the use of their tumor tissue sample(s) for testing/analysis at a future date. Future testing may include assays for newly identified markers of potential prognostic and/or therapeutic value. These markers may be specific to an individual cancer type, or they may be present more generally in cancer and/or other conditions.

Anemia is common among cancer patients and the treatment of choice is now Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents (ESAs). However, some patients do not respond to treatment. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the predictive value of endogenous erythropoietin rate on the response to erythropoietin beta. First, by confirming the predictive value of endogenous erythropoietin observed / predicted ratio on this response. Then if it is confirmed by establishing the optimal value of this ratio.

MDS are a diverse group of hematopoietic malignancies, which mainly occur in patients over 75 years of age. Incidence rate in 2012 in France was more than 6 cases per 100 000 person-years. MDS are characterized by ineffective haematopoiesis causing cytopenia, and by leukemic transformation. The disease is heterogeneous, its pathophysiology complex and clinical evolution variable.The few data available on MDS patients show how difficult it is to understand MDS, its prognosis and the reasons for prescribing or not some treatments. In the context of a highly complex potentially lethal disease such as MDS, it is of utmost importance to optimize the information conveyed to patients. Particularly, 70.5% of MDS patients surveyed in our developmental study would have preferred more information about prognosis at diagnosis disclosure. A simple intervention based on the use of a question prompt list (QPL), would greatly improve the information process by helping patients to express their main concerns at their medical consultations. Cultural differences may exist in the appraisal of QPLs and QPLs have not yet been widely used in France. However, in line with the previous results available in the literature and in a context a priori favourable to the use of such an instrument, the investigators hypothesise that use of a QPL will increase MDS patients' expressions of concerns and questions at their medical consultations. Particularly the investigators assume that the discussion about prognosis will be facilitated, without increasing anxiety because patients remain free to ask or not for such information. The use of QPLs would also be a way to limit social inequalities related to insufficient information and to encourage patient-doctor communication and meeting of patient preferences which could lead to better health outcomes.

RATIONALE: Light-emitting diode (LED) therapy may be able to prevent mucositis of the mouth. PURPOSE: Randomized phase II trial to determine the effectiveness of LED therapy in preventing mucositis of the mouth in children who are receiving chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy before donor bone marrow transplantation.

Randomized unblinded interventional clinical trial: Arm Intervention Experimental arm (n=150): Intervention group Administration of the MyPal ePRO system the intervention group will use the ePRO tools provided in the project. Standard care arm (n=150): no intervention besides general palliative care if required general palliative care if required. Patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 fashion to use the MyPal system and receive related-intervention versus general palliative care, stratified by cancer type (i.e. CLL vs MDS), using a computer-generated number sequence, which will be concealed until after group assignment.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumors from dividing so they stop growing or die. Chemoprotective drugs, such as amifostine, may protect normal cells from the side effects of chemotherapy. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of amifostine plus combination chemotherapy in treating patients with advanced cancer.

Normal bone marrow function depends on the coexistence of normal hematopoietic stem cells and a microenvironment mostly located in the medullary part of the bones. Stem cells cannot function properly in the absence of an adequate microenvironment. Whereas in malignant and non-malignant hematologic diseases caused by a deficiency or abnormal stem cells, stem cell transplantation is the treatment of choice that results in a cure, in diseases such as MDS, myelofibrosis, and other conditions associated with an abnormal microenvironment, pancytopenia may occur despite the presence of apparently normal hematopoietic cells with no recognizable cytogenetic abnormality. We, the investigators at Hadassah Medical Organization, proved in experimental studies that the entire osteohematopoietic complex consisting of trabecular bone, hematopoietic microenvironment (of stromal origin) and hematopoietic tissue has been successfully transferred directly into ablated bone marrow cavity in a one-step transplantation procedure. The goal of this study is to enhance hematopoiesis in patients with myelofibrosis syndrome by intraosseous inoculation of demineralized bone matrix (DBM) together with allogeneic bone marrow cells (BMC).