Congenital Pediatric Disorders clinical trials

Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant for Congenital Pediatric Disorders

The purpose of this study is to determine the safety and effectiveness of Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant (UCBT) to treat the patient's disease, and to see if this treatment can decrease the incidence of GVHD. This study is for patients that were born with a disease that affects their body's metabolism or immune system. The doctor plans to treat the patient for this illness with a stem cell transplant. While improved medical care has allowed many people with these diseases to live longer, the only way to truly cure the diseases is by means of a stem cell transplant from a donor who does not have the disease. A stem cell transplant will replace sick cells with new healthy donor cells. Stem cells grow into different types of blood cells that people need, including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. In a stem cell transplant, the patients own stem cells would be killed by chemotherapy drug and then replaced by stem cells from the donor. Stem cells can be collected from the bone marrow, peripheral blood or umbilical cords. In this study, umbilical cords will be the source of the stem cells. Currently, large inventories of umbilical cord blood units are available in public banks for transplantation in those lacking bone marrow donors. UCB transplants offer several advantages over adult bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplants, including: 1. Rapid availability, 2. Absence of donor risk, 3. Low risk of transmissible infectious diseases, 4. Low risk of acute GvHD (as compared to recipients of unrelated donor marrow and peripheral blood cells). The two main causes of death after umbilical cord blood transplantation for disorders for these kinds of patients, are graft failure and infection. In this study we are trying to address these two problems by using different drugs to prepare patients for the transplant. To help improve engraftment (cells begin to grow), we will include the drug Fludarabine to the usually used Busulfan and Cytoxan that the study patients will receive before their transplant. We will try to decrease the chance of developing graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) by using Cyclosporin A (CSA) and Mycophenolate Mofetil (MMF), instead of Anti-Thymocyte Globulin (ATG) which is normally used.