Active clinical trials for "Leukemia"

This clinical trial is studying the side effects of Erwinia asparaginase and what happens to the drug in the body in treating young patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who are allergic to PEG-asparaginase. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as Erwinia asparaginase, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy 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. It is not yet known which combination chemotherapy regimen is more effective in treating young patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. PURPOSE: Thisphase III trial is studying several different combination chemotherapy regimens to compare how well they work in treating young patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Giving chemotherapy drugs, such as fludarabine and busulfan, before a donor peripheral stem cell transplant 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 cells and help destroy any remaining cancer cells (graft-versus-tumor effect). Sometimes the transplanted cells from a donor can also make an immune response against the body's normal cells. Giving cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil before and after the transplant may stop this from happening. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying the side effects of giving donor peripheral stem cell transplant together with fludarabine and busulfan and to see how well it works in treating patients with hematologic cancers.

A dose-escalation study to estimate maximum cummulative dose (MTCD) of CAT-8015 that can be safely administered to a participant.

The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if intensive chemotherapy (with monoclonal antibody therapy in some patients) given for 8 courses over 5 to 6 months followed by monthly maintenance chemotherapy for 2 ½ years can improve or cure acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or lymphoblastic lymphoma.

This study proposes to transfer marker genes (detectable genetic traits or segments of DNA that can be identified and tracked) into aliquots of marrow obtained for Bone Marrow Transplant (BTM) in patients in remission of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML).

This single arm study will assess the efficacy and safety of MabThera + chlorambucil as induction therapy, followed in responders by maintenance therapy or observation in elderly patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia. During the induction phase patients will receive 2 x 4 weekly courses of chlorambucil followed by 8 x 4 weekly courses of chlorambucil + MabThera. Subsequently, responders will be randomized to receive 12 doses of MabThera given every 8 weeks, or no further treatment. The anticipated time on study treatment is 2+ years, and the target sample size is <100 individuals.

The prognosis of pediatric patients with hematologic malignancies whose disease is primarily refractory or those who experience a chemotherapy resistant bone marrow relapse is extremely poor. When new agents or chemotherapeutic regimens are unable to induce remission in this patient population, hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is also a poor alternative. Thus, in this very high risk group, additional attempts at remission induction with various combinations of chemotherapy alone will unlikely improve outcome and will contribute to overall toxicity. Alternative therapies are needed in these patients with chemotherapy resistant disease. Immunotherapy with natural killer (NK) cell infusion has the potential to decrease toxicity and induce hematologic remission. NK cells can kill target cells, including leukemia cells, without prior exposure to those cells. In patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT, several studies have demonstrated the powerful effect of NK cells against leukemia. Furthermore, NK cell infusions in patients with primary refractory or multiple-relapsed leukemia have been shown to be well tolerated and void of graft-versus-host disease effects. In this high risk group, complete leukemic remission has been observed in several of these patients after NK cell infusion. With the current technology available at St. Jude, we have developed a procedure to purify NK cells from adult donors. This protocol will assess the safety of chemotherapy and IL-2 administration to facilitate transient NK-cell engraftment in research participants who have chemotherapy refractory hematologic malignancies including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In this same cohort, we will also intend to explore the efficacy of NK cells infused in those participants who have chemotherapy refractory disease.

The purpose of this study is to determine a safe dose of LY573636-sodium to be given to patients with acute myeloid leukemia and to determine any side effects that may be associated with LY573636-sodium in this patient population. Efficacy measures will also be used to assess the activity of LY573636-sodium in acute myeloid leukemia and essential thrombocythemia patients.

Patients receiving allogeneic stem cell transplantation for hematological malignancies who suffer a relapse of their disease post-transplant have limited treatment options and a poor prognosis. With the exception of patients with chronic leukemias who may achieve prolonged remissions after donor lymphocyte infusions (DLIs), treatments using either chemotherapy or a DLI achieve less than a 10% median survival beyond 6 months. Most of these patients die of progressive leukemia, underlying the need for new therapeutic approaches. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-mismatched DLIs appear to possess a more potent graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) effect. However, when given after an HLA-mismatched transplant DLIs have a high risk of causing graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), which can be severe. To reduce the risk of GvHD, infusions of mismatched lymphocytes from an alternative donor may be used to avoid permanent engraftment and associated risk of GvHD. In this study, we propose to use a novel strategy to treat leukemias relapsing after HLA matched allogeneic stem cell transplantation by using haplo-identical DLIs to promote the associated antileukemic effect while minimizing the possibility of permanent engraftment and associated GvHD. To achieve only temporary engraftment and to promote disease control we will give fludarabine immunosuppression prior to the DLI. We anticipate the infusion of HLA-mismatched donor lymphocytes in this setting will produce no detectible engraftment or only temporary engraftment, but may result in a strong GvL effect regardless of engraftment outcome. We will select patients for this protocol who fall into the worst category for post-transplant relapse. Specifically, we will enroll patients with acute leukemia or MDS relapsing within 6 months of transplant, of which less than 5% survive beyond a year from relapse.