View clinical trials related to Pancytopenia.
Filter by:Background: - Severe aplastic anemia (SAA) can lead to problems with bone marrow health and result in low blood cell counts, which require frequent transfusions. Standard treatment for SAA involves injections of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) plus cyclosporine (CsA). This regimen has been shown to improve the blood counts in about two-thirds of patients. However, the ATG/CsA regimen has the following limitations: (a) the disease can come back (relapse) in about one-third of patients who improve initially; and (b) in about 10% to 15% of cases, certain types of bone marrow cancer (such as myelodysplasia and leukemia) can develop (called evolution). Experience with other drugs in SAA such as cyclophosphamide suggests that similar response rates to ATG/CsA can be achieved with a lower risk of relapse and clonal evolution. However, cyclophosphamide was found to have significant side effects in SAA when investigated over 10 years ago due to increase risk of fungal infections. - Better antibiotic drugs against fungus have been developed and are widely used to treat patients who have low white blood cell counts and are at risk of developing infections. In SAA patients in particular, these newer antibiotics have had a large impact in preventing and treating fungus infections. Researchers are revisiting the use of cyclophosphamide in SAA treatment, and plan to give a lower dose of CsA in combination with the immune-suppressing drug cyclophosphamide, as well as antibiotics to protect against infections, as a possible treatment for the disease. Objectives: - To determine the safety and effectiveness of the combination of cyclophosphamide and cyclosporine in treating severe aplastic anemia that has not been treated with immunosuppressive therapy.
Examine red and white blood cells of PNH patients with bone marrow failure syndromes.
Background: - Severe aplastic anemia (SAA) can lead to problems with bone marrow health and result in low blood cell counts, which require frequent transfusions. Standard initial treatment for SAA involves injections of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) plus cyclosporine (CsA). Patients with SAA who do not respond to initial treatment with ATG (refractory) have a high risk of dying without additional treatment. In these cases, for those who do not have a matched bone marrow transplant donor there is no well-defined standard therapy. In our experience with patients who do not respond to horse ATG + CsA, only about one-third of patients who are re-treated with rabbit ATG + CsA improve. Experience with cyclophosphamide in the treatment of refractory severe aplastic anemia suggests that this drug is able to improve blood counts in about 50% of cases. However, the cyclophosphamide regimen has been associated with a significant infection risk (mostly caused by fungus) in studies conducted over 10 years ago due to the lowering of the white blood cell levels. - Better antibiotic drugs against fungus have been developed and are widely used to treat patients who have low white blood cell counts and are at risk of developing infections. In SAA patients in particular, these newer antibiotics have had a large impact in preventing and treating fungus infections. Researchers are revisiting the use of cyclophosphamide at lower doses to minimize its side effects given in combination with another immune suppressant, fludarabine. Objectives: - To determine the safety and effectiveness of the combination of fludarabine plus cyclophosphamide in treating severe aplastic anemia that has not responded to initial treatments.
T cell depletion utilizing the CliniMACS device will allow more precise, specific and controlled graft engineering of peripheral blood stem cells from unrelated and partially matched related donors without an increase in relapse or graft rejection and grade III or IV acute graft versus host disease (GVHD).
CD34+ stem cell selection in children, adolescents and young adults receiving partially matched family donor or matched unrelated adult donor allogeneic bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplant will be safe and well tolerated and be associated with a low incidence of serious (Grade III/IV) acute and chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD).
To determine the time to and rate of hematologic engraftment following unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation in adults with one or two cord blood units using total body irradiation and fludarabine as the transplant conditioning regimen and cyclosporine/MMF as graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis.
Randomized comparison of cyclophosphamide versus reduced-dose cyclophosphamide plus fludarabine in addition to anti-thymocyte globulin for the conditioning therapy in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for bone marrow failure syndrome.
RATIONALE: Giving low doses of chemotherapy and antithymocyte globulin before a donor stem cell transplant helps stop the growth of abnormal cells. It may also stop 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 abnormal cells (graft-versus-tumor effect). PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well a donor stem cell transplant works after busulfan, fludarabine, methylprednisolone, and antithymocyte globulin in treating patients with bone marrow failure syndrome.
Treatment for patients with autoimmune destruction of blood cells is poor. The part of the body that fights infections is called the immune system and white blood cells (WBCs) are part of the immune system. Normally, a person's body creates WBCs to fight infections and eliminates WBCs which have stopped helping the body function. Patients with autoimmune destruction of blood cells have difficulty eliminating old WBCs. The abnormal WBCs build up and can damage other healthy cells, which can lead to anemia, fatigue, jaundice, internal bleeding, infection, and cancer. Few effective medications exist for treatment for patients with autoimmune cytopenias and those commonly used are fraught with side effects. Nevertheless, as scientific understanding of autoimmune diseases has improved, more directed and less toxic therapies are becoming available. A number of groups have been studying the efficacy of a medication called sirolimus in patients with autoimmune diseases. This medicine has been FDA-approved for over 20 years. Sirolimus is a medicine used in children with other diseases. Sirolimus works, in part, by eliminating old and abnormal WBCs. Our group and others have shown that sirolimus is effective in mice with autoimmunity and in children with a rare condition called Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Syndrome (ALPS). We believe sirolimus will help children with autoimmune cytopenias. We believe it will improve their symptoms and make them less sick. We propose to study sirolimus in children with chronic and/or refractory autoimmune cytopenias.
Severe aplastic anemia (SAA) is a life-threatening bone marrow failure disorder characterized by pancytopenia and a hypocellular bone marrow. Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation offers the opportunity for cure in 70% of patients, but most patients are not suitable candidates for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) due to advanced age or lack of a histocompatible donor. For these patients, comparable long term survival is attainable with immunosuppressive treatment with anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) and cyclosporine (CsA). However, of those patients treated with horse ATG(h-ATG)/CsA, one quarter to one third will not respond, and about 50% of responders relapse. Auto-reactive T cells may be resistant to the effect of ATG/CsA (non-responders), while in others residual auto-reactive T cells expand post-treatment, leading to hematopoietic stem cell destruction and recurrent pancytopenia (relapse). As long term survival is correlated to response rates and robustness of hematopoietic recovery, novel immunosuppressive regimens that can achieve hematologic response and decrease relapse rates are needed. This trial will compare the effectiveness of three immunosuppressive regimens as first line therapies in patients with SAA with early hematologic response as the primary endpoint, as well as assess the role of extended CsA treatment after h-ATG in reducing numbers of late events of relapse and clonal evolution. Randomization is employed to obtain an equal distribution of subject to each arm; comparisons of early hematologic responses will be made among the rates observed among the three concurrent arms (rabbit-ATG [r-ATG] versus standard h-ATG; alemtuzumab vs standard h-ATG). For long course CSA, comparison of primary end points will be to well established historic relapse rate of 38% at 2-3 years and a cumulative rate of clonal evolution of 15%. In the original design subjects were randomized to one of three different regimens: h-ATG + 6 months CsA followed by an 18 month CsA taper; r-ATG + 6 months CsA; or alemtuzumab (Campath). Subjects failing to respond to r-ATG will be crossed over to alemtuzumab (Campath), and subjects failing alemtuzumab (Campath) will be crossed over to r-ATG. Subjects failing to respond to h-ATG + CsA taper will go off study and be evaluated for eligibility for a second course of immunosuppression on companion protocol 03-H-0249, which similarly randomizes subjects between r-ATG and alemtuzumab (Campath) as salvage therapy. The Campath arm closed to new accrual for lack of efficacy on 4/10/2008. New accruals will be randomized to h-ATG + 6 months CsA followed by an 18 month CsA taper or r-ATG + 6 months CsA. Subjects failing to respond to r-ATG will continue to be crossed over to alemtuzumab (Campath ). Subjects failing to respond to h-ATG + CsA taper will go off study and be evaluated for eligibility for a second course of immunosuppression on companion protocol 03-H-0249, which similarly randomizes subjects between r-ATG and alemtuzumab (Campath ) as salvage therapy. The primary endpoint will be hematologic respnse, defined as no longer meeting criteria for SAA, at 6 months. Secondary endpoints are relapse, robustness of hematologic recovery at 6 months, response at 3 and 12 months, survival, clonal evolution to PNH, myelodysplasia and acute leukemia. Long-course CSA will be assessed separately for its efficacy in reducing late events of relapse and evolution by comparison to historical control data.