Active clinical trials for "Leukemia"

The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if combining cord blood units will be safe and result in the cells "taking" faster in recipients. The cord blood units will have their cell number increased in the lab using cells from a family member or they will be collected from an unrelated healthy donor.

RATIONALE: Studying natural killer cells in samples of blood from patients with cancer may help doctors find out how these cells are effected by chemotherapy. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying natural killer cells in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

RATIONALE: Pentostatin may stop the growth of cancer cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as cyclophosphamide, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Monoclonal antibodies, such as rituximab, can block cancer growth in different ways. Some block the ability of cancer cells to grow and spread. Others find cancer cells and help kill them or carry cancer-killing substances to them. Giving pentostatin together with cyclophosphamide and rituximab may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying the side effects and how well giving pentostatin together with cyclophosphamide and rituximab works in treating patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

This is an open label phase I study designed to explore the feasibility, safety and biologic activity of epigenetic priming with decitabine prior to standard cytarabine, daunorubicin induction chemotherapy in younger patients with less-than-favorable risk AML. Primary Objective: To find an appropriate dose level for decitabine when used as priming for cytarabine and daunorubicin "7+3" induction chemotherapy in AML. Secondary Objectives: To establish the safety and expected toxicities of decitabine when used as priming for cytarabine and daunorubicin "7+3" induction chemotherapy in AML. To establish the optimal dose schedule of decitabine required to broadly demethylate cytosine residues in genomic regulatory regions. To investigate, in selected cases, the molecular and cellular consequences of decitabine-induced hypomethylation by a) establishing the extent and degree of hypomethylation at specific genomic loci required to reactivate the expression of repressed genes and by b) determining the effect of hypomethylation on the differentiation and/or apoptosis of leukemic blasts.

Patients are being asked to participate in this study because treatment for their disease requires a stem cell transplant (SCT). Stem cells are the source of normal blood cells found in the bone marrow and lead to recovery of blood counts after bone marrow transplantation. With stem cell transplants, regardless of whether the donor is a full match to the patient or not, there is a risk of developing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). GVHD is a serious and sometimes fatal side effect of SCT. GVHD occurs when the new donor stem cells (graft) recognizes that the body tissues of the patient (host) are different from those of the donor. When this happens, cells in the graft may attack the host organs. How much this happens and how severe the GVHD is depends on many things, including how different the donors cells are, the strength of the drugs given in preparation for the transplant, the quality of transplanted cells and the age of the person receiving the transplant. Typically, acute GVHD occurs in the first 100 days following transplant, while chronic GVHD occurs after day 100. Acute GVHD most often involves the skin, where it can cause anywhere from a mild rash to complete removal of skin; liver, where it can anywhere from a rise in liver function tests to liver failure; and the gut, where it can cause anywhere from mild diarrhea to profuse, life-threatening diarrhea. Most patients who develop GVHD experience a mild to moderate form, but some patients develop the severe, life-threatening form. Previous studies have shown that patients who receive SCT's can have a lower number of special T cells in their blood, called regulatory T cells, than people who have not received stem cell transplants. When regulatory T cells are low, there appears to be an increased rate of severe, acute GVHD. A drug known as IL-2 (Proleukin) has been shown to increase the number of regulatory T cells in patients following stem cell transplant, and in this study investigators plan to give low dose IL-2 after transplant. This study is called a phase II study because its major purpose is to find out whether using a low-dose of IL-2 will be effective in preventing acute GVHD. Other important purposes are to find out if this treatment helps the patient's immune system recover regulatory T cells faster after the transplant. This study will assess the safety and toxicity of low-dose IL-2 given to patients after transplantation and determine whether this drug is helpful in preventing GVHD.

This single arm study will assess the safety and effect on response rate of a combination of rituximab and chlorambucil in previously untreated participants with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Participants will receive 6 monthly cycles of combination treatment, followed by up to 6 cycles of chlorambucil alone. Rituximab will be administered on Day 1 of each cycle, at a dose of 375 milligrams per square meter (mg/m^2) intravenously (IV) in Cycle 1, and 500 mg/m^2 in subsequent cycles, and chlorambucil will be administered on Days 1-7 of each cycle at a dose of 10 mg/m^2/day per oral (PO).

The purpose of this study is to assess safety and tolerability of multiple ascending doses of AZD1152 and to assess effect of AZD1152 on the rate of complete remission in patients with relapsed acute myeloid leukaemia who are not considered to be suitable for standard chemotherapy.

The purpose of this study is to determine if a subcutaneous (SC) dosing schedule of veltuzumab can be established in NHL or CLL patients and to confirm the safety and efficacy of veltuzumab that was previously established when administered intravenously.

This is a phase II study to evaluate the safety, feasibility and efficacy of immunotherapy with GRNVAC1 in patients with AML.

Primary Objective: 1. To determine efficacy of escalating doses of pentostatin in combination with tacrolimus and methotrexate for the prevention of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in the context of unrelated donor and one antigen mismatched related donor transplantation. Secondary Objectives: To determine safety of escalating doses of pentostatin in combination with tacrolimus and methotrexate. To reduce the incidence of acute GVHD following transplants with unrelated donor to 40%. To document blood levels of tacrolimus when combined with pentostatin.