Active clinical trials for "Leukemia"

RATIONALE: Studying the genes expressed in samples of tumor tissue from patients with cancer may help doctors identify biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is looking at gene expression in tissue from patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia enrolled in clinical trial ECOG-2993.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tumor tissue from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors identify and learn more about biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This research study is looking at biomarkers in blood and bone marrow samples from patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

This international, multicentre, single arm, phase IV study will assess the safety and efficacy of nelarabine in children and young adults with relapsed or refractory T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) or lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL) whose disease has not responded to or has relapsed following treatment with at least two chemotherapy regimens. It is a post-authorisation safety study (PASS) conducted for the purpose of confirming the safety profile and the clinical benefit of nelarabine under licensed conditions of use. The study is observational, non-interventional, and will include approximately 40 children and young adults (up to 21 years of age).

Imatinib has revolutionised the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). The first clinical trials were conducted in 1998 in patients with advanced disease, and by 2002 imatinib was established as the standard therapy for all patients including those recently diagnosed. In spite of overwhelming evidence about its efficacy we still need to gain more knowledge about issues related to long term treatment with imatinib such as why some patients respond better than others, the development of side effects and the quality of life.

Survivors of childhood leukemia have muscle weakness and impaired mobility (physical performance), a higher than expected frequency of obesity, and early mortality from cardiovascular disease. Treatment related neuropathy, cardiotoxicity and general cachexia may complicate physical performance and establish a pattern of sedentary behavior that may lead to a lifetime of inactivity. There is limited evidence that children being treated for leukemia benefit from home exercise programs during the maintenance phase of therapy, particularly in terms of muscle strength and range of motion. However, there are no established guidelines regarding the prescription of exercise for children diagnosed with leukemia. We propose to test the feasibility of an exercise intervention among children being treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and hypothesize that children who participate in the exercise intervention will demonstrate improvements in gross motor function, strength, flexibility, and cardio respiratory fitness, and that they will have more favorable body composition when compared to the children who are assigned to the usual activity group.

In AIDA 2000 therapy of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is given in a risk-adapted manner. Risk factors are age and white-blood-cell (WBC)-count at diagnosis. Induction therapy is done with ATRA and idarubicin followed by postremission therapy with daunorubicin and mitoxantrone in age adapted dosages. Patients with an high WBC were additionally treated with cytarabine. Finally a two year period of maintenance therapy with 6-mercaptopurine, methotrexate and ATRA is performed.

Hypothesis:Oral Voriconazole will be as effective as intravenous Amphotericin B as antifungal prophylaxis in induction of acute leukemia (ALL, AML) in pediatric patients, with less toxicity and more convenience.

RATIONALE: Studying ways to diagnose fungal infections early may help doctors plan the best treatment. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying laboratory tests to see how well they find aspergillosis early in patients at high risk of fungal infection caused by treatment for hematologic cancer or other disease.

Primary Objective: 1. To assess the self-reported symptoms and the plasma cytokine levels of AML/MDS patients pretransplantation and posttransplantation with allogeneic blood and marrow in order to identify changes in symptoms (or symptom clusters) and changes in cytokines that may be related to the conditioning regimen and/or to the development of GVHD during the 100 days posttransplant. Based on the current literature, both animal and human research, in this study we hypothesize that increases in TNF alpha to be associated with poor appetite, sleep disturbance and fatigue, but not with increases in pain, depression and numbness.

This clinical trial is assessing compliance with long-term mercaptopurine treatment in young patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in remission. Assessing why young patients who have acute lymphoblastic leukemia may not take their medications as prescribed may help identify ways to assist them in taking their medications more consistently and may improve long-term treatment outcomes.