Active clinical trials for "Preleukemia"

RATIONALE: Biological therapies use different ways to stimulate the immune system and stop cancer cells from growing. Combining different types of biological therapies may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of biological therapy in treating patients who have myelodysplastic syndrome.

RATIONALE: Thalidomide may be an effective treatment for anemia caused by myelodysplastic syndrome. PURPOSE: Randomized phase II trial to study the effectiveness of thalidomide in treating anemia in patients who have myelodysplastic syndrome.

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 the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy and kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of bone marrow transplantation following combination chemotherapy in treating patients with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome .

Approximately 40% of the patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) die as a consequence of their cytopenia. As in aplastic anemia, the cytopenia of MDS may be partly due to cytotoxic T cell activity. Immunosuppressive therapy may therefore reverse the cytopenia. In a phase II pilot study of anti-thymocyte globin (ATG) to treat myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS); 41% of patients (61% of patients with refractory anemia) have responded in terms of transfusion independence. Recently, Jonasova et al [32] reported a 82% substantial hematological response rate in 18 patients with MDS of the refractory anemia (RA) subtype treated with cyclosporine alone. Just over 50% of the patients in this series had MDS of the hypocellular type. Cyclosporine alone if indeed efficacious would be a powerful therapeutic option that could be readily used by hematologists in the community to treat patients with MDS. This efficacy needs to be proven in a larger study which includes patients with the other subtypes of MDS and more patients with the non-hypocellular forms of MDS (which constitute approximately 70% of the cases in the community). As MDS is a heterogeneous group of disorders, a randomized comparison with the other immunomodulating intervention of proven benefit, ATG, is appropriate. In this randomized study patients with MDS will receive either ATG alone or cyclosporine alone.

Bone marrow transplants (BMT) are one of the accepted therapies used to treat leukemia. However, BMT have risks of complications. One potentially life-threatening complication is known as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The GVHD is a reaction caused by an incompatibility between donor cells and recipient cells. Antigens found on the recipient s cells are recognized by the donor s transplanted white blood cell lymphocytes. These lymphocytes begin attacking the recipient s cells and tissues and may lead to death. One of the most effective ways to prevent this reaction is to remove the lymphocytes from the transplanted marrow. Unfortunately, without lymphocytes the recipient s immune system will be lowered and may result in a relapse of leukemia or an infection. Researchers have shown they can perform effective BMT by removing the lymphocytes prior to the transplant and then later adding the lymphocytes back. This technique can reduce the potential for GVHD and preserve the graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect of the transplant. In this study researchers plan to use peripheral blood with lymphocytes removed rather than bone marrow. In order to increase the number of progenitor cells, the cells responsible for correcting the leukemia, donors will receive doses of G-CSF prior to the transplant. G-CSF (granulocyte colony stimulating factor) is a growth factor that increases the production of progenitor cells in the donor s blood stream. The study will be broken into two parts. The first part of the study will attempt to determine if peripheral blood with lymphocytes removed can prevent GVHD while preserving the GVL effect of the transplant. In the second part of the study, patients that received the transplant will have the lymphocytes added-back on two separate occasions in order reduce the chances of relapse and infection. The study is designed to treat up to 55 patients ages 10 to 60 years and follow their progress for 5 years.

The goal of this clinical research study is to find the highest tolerable dose of nivolumab that can be give in combination with idarubicin and cytarabine in patients with MDS and AML. The safety and effectiveness of this drug combination will also be studied. This is an investigational study. Nivolumab is not FDA-approved or commercially available. Idarubicin is FDA-approved and commercially available for the treatment of patients with AML. Cytarabine is FDA approved and commercially available for treatment of patient with AML. The use of these drugs in combination is investigational. The study doctor can explain how the drugs are designed to work. Up to 75 patients will take part in this study. All will be enrolled at MD Anderson.

The purpose of this phase I study is to investigate the combination of hypomethylating agents with experimental peptide vaccination against four selected tumor antigens, known to be upregulated in response to hypomethylating agents, in patients with high risk myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia.

The purpose of this Phase I, multicenter study is to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and clinical activity of AG-881 in advanced hematologic malignancies that harbor an IDH1 and/or IDH2 mutation

An open label, Phase 1, study of AMV564 as monotherapy to assess the safety and efficacy in patients with Myelodysplastic Syndromes

This clinical trial studies decitabine and cytarabine in treating older patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome that is likely to come back or spread to other places in the body, or myeloproliferative neoplasm. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as decitabine and cytarabine, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving decitabine and cytarabine may work better than standard therapies in treating cancers of the bone marrow and blood cells, such as acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, or myeloproliferative neoplasm.