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131 active trials for Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Administration of Donor T Cells With the Caspase-9 Suicide Gene

Patients will be receiving a stem cell transplant as treatment for their disease. As part of the stem cell transplant, patients will be given very strong doses of chemotherapy, which will kill all their existing stem cells. A close relative of the patient will be identified, whose stem cells are not a perfect match for the patient's, but can be used. This type of transplant is called "allogeneic", meaning that the cells are from a donor. With this type of donor who is not a perfect match, there is typically an increased risk of developing GvHD, and a longer delay in the recovery of the immune system. GvHD is a serious and sometimes fatal side-effect of stem cell transplant. GvHD occurs when the new donor cells (graft) recognize that the body tissues of the patient (host) are different from those of the donor. In this study, investigators are trying to see whether they can make special T cells in the laboratory that can be given to the patient to help their immune system recover faster. As a safety measure, we want to "program" the T cells so that if, after they have been given to the patient, they start to cause GvHD, we can destroy them ("suicide gene"). Investigators will obtain T cells from a donor, culture them in the laboratory, and then introduce the "suicide gene" which makes the cells sensitive to a specific drug called AP1903. If the specially modified T cells begin to cause GvHD, the investigators can kill the cells by administering AP1903 to the patient. We have had encouraging results in a previous study regarding the effective elimination of T cells causing GvHD, while sparing a sufficient number of T cells to fight infection and potentially cancer. More specifically, T cells made to carry a gene called iCasp9 can be killed when they encounter the drug AP1903. To get the iCasp9 gene into T cells, we insert it using a virus called a retrovirus that has been made for this study. The AP1903 that will be used to "activate" the iCasp9 is an experimental drug that has been tested in a study in normal donors with no bad side-effects. We hope we can use this drug to kill the T cells. The major purpose of this study is to find a safe and effective dose of "iCasp9" T cells that can be given to patients who receive an allogeneic stem cell transplant. Another important purpose of this study is to find out whether these special T cells can help the patient's immune system recover faster after the transplant than they would have otherwise.

Start: November 2011
Administration of Donor Multi TAA-Specific T Cells for AML or MDS (ADSPAM)

This research study uses special blood cells called multiple tumor-associated antigen (TAA)-specific T cells (a new experimental therapy) to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) which has come back, or may come back, or has not gone away after standard treatment, including an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). The investigators have previously used this sort of therapy to treat Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphomas that are infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). EBV is found in cancer cells of up to half of all patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This suggests that it may play a role in causing lymphoma. The cancer cells infected by EBV are able to hide from the body's immune system and escape being killed. The investigators previously tested whether special white blood cells (called T cells) that were trained to kill EBV-infected cells could affect these tumors, and in many patients the investigators found that giving these trained T cells causes a complete or partial response. Other cancers express specific proteins that can be targeted in the same way. The investigators have been able to infuse such tumor-targeted cells into up to 10 patients with lymphoma who do not have EBV, and seen some complete responses. Importantly, the treatment appears to be safe. Therefore, the investigators now want to test whether the investigators can direct these special T cells against other types of cancers that carry similar proteins called tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). These proteins are specific to the cancer cell, so they either do not show up, or show up in low quantities, or normal human cells. The investigators will grow T cells from patients' stem cell donors in the laboratory in a way that will train them to recognize the tumor proteins WT1, NY-ESO-1, PRAME, and Survivin, which are expressed on most AML and MDS cancer cells. The cells will be infused at least 30 days post-allogeneic stem cell transplant. In this study, the investigators want see whether these cells will be able to recognize and kill cancer cells that express these proteins. These donor-derived multiTAA-specific T cells are an investigational product not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration The purpose of this study is to find the largest safe dose of donor-derived tumor protein multiTAA-specific T cells for patients with AML or MDS.

Start: February 2016