15 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Background: Severe aplastic anemia (SAA) is a rare and serious blood disorder. It causes the immune system to turn against bone marrow cells. Standard treatment for SSA is a combination of 3 drugs (Cyclosporine \[CsA\], Eltrombopag \[EPAG\], and horse anti-thymocyte globulin \[h-ATG\]). Researchers want to see if starting people at a lower dose of CsA with EPAG before giving them h-ATG is helpful. Objective: To learn if early initiation of oral therapy with CsA and EPAG is safe and effective in people who have SAA and have not been treated with a course of immunosuppressive therapy and EPAG. Eligibility: People ages 3 and older with SAA Design: Participants will be screened with: medical history physical exam electrocardiogram blood tests family history bone marrow biopsy current medicines. Participants may be screened remotely via telephone conference. Participants will take a lower oral dose of CsA and EPAG. They will take CsA twice a day for 6 months. They will take EPAG for 6 months. Those who cannot visit the NIH Clinical Center within 72 hours will start taking the drugs at home. They will have weekly telephone calls with NIH staff until they visit the Clinical Center. Participants may get h-ATG at the Clinical Center for 4 days. For this, they will have a central line placed. It is a plastic tube inserted into a neck, chest, or arm vein. Participants will repeat most screening tests throughout the study. Participants will have follow-up visits at the Clinical Center at 3 months, 6 months, and annually for 5 years after the start of the study....
This study is researching an experimental drug called REGN7257 (called "study drug"). The study is focused on patients who have severe aplastic anemia (SAA), a disease of the bone marrow resulting in an impairment of the production of blood cells. The main purpose of this two-part study (Part A and Part B) is to test how safe and tolerable REGN7257 is in patients with SAA in which other Immunosuppressive therapies (ISTs) have not worked well. The study is looking at several other research questions to better understand the following properties of REGN7257: * Side effects that may be experienced by participants taking REGN7257 * How REGN7257 works in the body * How much REGN7257 is present in blood after dosing * If REGN7257 works to raise levels of certain blood counts after treatment * How quickly REGN7257 works to raise levels of certain blood counts * In patients for whom REGN7257 works to raise levels of certain blood counts after treatment, how many continue to show such a response throughout the study * If REGN7257 works to lower the number of platelet and red blood cell transfusions needed * How REGN7257 changes immune cell counts and composition * How the body reacts to REGN7257 and if it produces proteins that bind to REGN7257 (this would be called the formation of anti-drug antibodies \[ADA\])
Background: Severe aplastic anemia (SAA), and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) cause serious blood problems. Stem cell transplants using bone marrow or blood plus chemotherapy can help. Researchers want to see if using peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) rather than bone marrow cells works too. PBSCs are easier to collect and have more cells that help transplants. Objectives: To see how safely and effectively SAA, MDS and PNH are treated using peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cells from a family member plus chemotherapy. Eligibility: Recipients ages 4-60 with SAA, MDS or PNH and their relative donors ages 4-75 Design: Recipients will have: * Blood, urine, heart, and lung tests * Scans * Bone marrow sample Recipients will need a caregiver for several months. They may make fertility plans and a power of attorney. Donors will have blood and tissue tests, then injections to boost stem cells for 5-7 days. Donors will have blood collected from a tube in an arm or leg vein. A machine will separate stem cells and maybe white blood cells. The rest of the blood will be returned into the other arm or leg. In the hospital for about 1 month, recipients will have: * Central line inserted in the neck or chest * Medicines for side effects * Chemotherapy over 8 days and radiation 1 time * Stem cell transplant over 4 hours Up to 6 months after transplant, recipients will stay near NIH for weekly physical exams and blood tests. At day 180, recipients will go home. They will have tests at their doctor s office and NIH several times over 5 years.
Background: - This research is being done to describe the types of bacteria found in the mouths of patients who have severe aplastic anemia (SAA) and are treated with drugs that suppress the immune system or with stem cell transplant. People with SAA who receive these treatments are more likely to get infections. Studies show that there might be a link between the bacteria in your mouth and those bacteria that can cause infections. The bacteria found in the mouths of patients with SAA will be described. Objectives: - To understand the changes in mouth bacteria that are related to treatment and to describe the oral bacterial environment. Eligibility: * Adults at least 18 years of age who are going to be treated for SAA. * Healthy volunteers at least 18 years of age. Design: * Participants will answer questions about their medical history and dental care. Their mouths will be examined. * Participants with SAA will be tested during treatment for their disease, over the course of 1 year. All participants with SAA will be tested at 3 scheduled appointments. Any participants who require a breathing tube will receive additional tests. * Healthy volunteers will be tested during 1 visit. * Participants will give two samples each time. A saliva sample will be taken with a disposable padded tool. Skin cells will be collected from the tongue with a small plastic brush.
Background: - Eltrombopag is a drug being tested for treating severe aplastic anemia. It can help improve blood counts in these patients. However, researchers do not know how long the drug can and should be taken for this type of anemia. Objectives: - To look at whether 6 months of treatment with eltrombopag can improve patient s blood counts. Eligibility: - Individuals at least 2 years of age who are taking eltrombopag for severe aplastic anemia. Design: * Participants will take eltrombopag by mouth once a day for 6 months. * Blood samples will be collected every 2 weeks for the first 6 months. Bone marrow samples will be collected at 3 and 6 months. These samples will look at the effects of the study drug on the marrow. * Participants will continue to take the study drug for as long as it is effective and if the side effects are not severe.
Severe Aplastic Anemia (SAA) is a rare and very serious blood disorder in which the bone marrow stops producing the cells which make up blood; red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Researchers believe this is caused by an autoimmune reaction, a condition in which the natural defense system of the body begins attacking itself. In SAA the immune system begins attacking the bone marrow. Red blood cells are responsible for carrying oxygen to all of the organ systems in the body, and low numbers (anemia) can cause difficulty breathing and fatigue. Platelets are responsible for normal blood clotting and low numbers can result in easy bruising and bleeding which can be deadly. White blood cells are responsible for fighting infections, and low numbers of these can lead to frequent infections, the most common cause of death in patients with aplastic anemia. SAA can be treated by bone marrow transplant (BMT) or by drugs designed to slow down the immune system (immunosuppressants). BMT can be successful, but it requires a donor with matched bone marrow, making this therapy available only to a few patients. BMT with unmatched bone marrow can fail and cause dangerous side effects. Presently, the two drugs used to treat SAA by slowing down the immune system (immunosuppression) are antithymocyte globulin (ATG) and cyclosporin A (CSA). When used in combination these two drugs can improve most patients condition. However, one third of the patients who respond to this therapy experience a relapse of SAA. In addition, some patients treated with ATG/CSA can later develop other disorders of the blood. Recently, researchers have found that another immunosuppressive drug called cyclophosphamide, has been successful at treating patients with SAA. In addition, patients treated with cyclophosphamide do not experience relapses or develop other disorders of the blood. In this study researchers would like to compare the combinations of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) and cyclosporin A (CSA) to cyclophosphamide and cyclosporin A (CSA) for the treatment of SAA.
This study will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of treating patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with both peripheral blood stem cells from a family member and umbilical cord blood stem cells from an unrelated donor. Patients with SAA or MDS for whom other treatments have failed or are not available may be eligible for this study. Candidates may not have a tissue-matched sibling or matched unrelated donor and must have a family member who is a partial tissue type match. Participants undergo the following tests and procedures: * Insertion of a central intravenous (IV) line (plastic tube) into a large vein. The tube is used for giving the donated stem cells and antibiotics and other medicines, for transfusions of red blood cells and platelets, and for collecting blood samples. * Preparatory chemotherapy (fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and anti-thymocyte globulin) and total body irradiation to suppress immunity and prevent rejection of the donated cells. * Infusion of the donated stem cells and umbilical cord cells. * Immune suppression with the drugs tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil and prednisone to prevent rejection of the donated cells and to prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a complication of stem cell transplants in which the donors immune cells destroy the patients healthy tissues. The average hospital stay after stem cell transplantation is 3 to 4 weeks. Patients return for frequent follow-up visits for the first 2 to 4 months after transplantation. Once the patient returns home, his or her referring physician is asked to send results of any laboratory testing to the NIH researchers at least every 3 months for the first 3 years and annually thereafter. Patient follow-up visits are scheduled at NIH at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years after transplantation to monitor for signs of disease or post-transplantation complications, such as infection or GVHD. After 5 years, participants are offered the opportunity to enroll in NHLBIs long-term evaluation and follow-up care protocol.
This study is a prospective, multicenter phase II study with patients receiving haploidentical transplantation for Severe Aplastic Anemia (SAA). The primary objective is to assess overall survival (OS) at 1 year post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).
For patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) who have failed to respond to immunosuppressive therapy and lack an HLA identical family member, our objectives are to make an initial assessment of the safety and efficacy of allogenic stem cell transplantation from either a matched unrelated donor or a mismatched reacted donor using the conditioning regimen of Cytoxan, reduced total body irradiation (TBI) and Campath IH. The principle measures of safety and efficacy will be : 1. Patient survival probability at 100 days, 1 year and 2 years. 2. Incidence of graft versus host disease (GVHD), as well as incidence of acute GVHD and chronic GVHD within 6 months and 2 years. 3. Engraftment at 6 months, 1 year and 2 years
A phase II trial of a reduced intensity conditioned (RIC) allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) with post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) for idiopathic severe aplastic anemia (SAA), paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), acquired pure red cell aplasia (aPRCA), or acquired amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia (aAT) utilizing population pharmacokinetic (popPK)-guided individual dosing of pre-transplant conditioning and differential dosing of low dose total body irradiation based on age, presence of myelodysplasia and/or clonal hematopoiesis.
Severe aplastic anemia is a rare and serious form of bone marrow failure related to an immune-mediated mechanism that results in severe pancytopenia and high risk for infections and bleeding. Patients with matched sibling donors for transplantation have a 80-90% chance of survival; however, a response rate with just immunosuppression for those patients lacking suitable HLA-matched related siblings is only 60%. With immunosuppression, only 1/3 of patients are cured, 1/3 are dependent on long term immunosuppression, and the other 1/3 relapse or develop a clonal disorder. Recent studies have shown that using a haploidentical donor for transplantation has good response rates and significantly lower rates of acute and chronic GVHD.
Transplantation with stem cells is a standard therapy in many centers around the world. Previous experience with stem cell transplantation therapy for leukemias, lymphomas, other cancers, aplastic anemia and other non-malignant diseases, has led to prolonged disease-free survival or cure for some patients. However, the high doses of pre-transplant radiation and chemotherapy drugs used, and the type of drugs used, often cause many side effects that are intolerable for some patients. Slow recovery of blood counts is a frequent complication of high dose pre-transplant regimens, resulting in a longer period of risk for bleeding and infection plus a longer time in the hospital. Recent studies have shown that using lower doses of radiation and chemotherapy (ones that do not completely kill all of the patient's bone marrow cells) before blood or bone marrow transplant, may be a better treatment for high risk patients, such as those with Dyskeratosis Congenita (DC) or Severe Aplastic Anemia(SAA). These low dose transplants may result in shorter periods of low blood counts, and blood counts that do not go as low as with traditional pre-transplant radiation and chemotherapy. Furthermore, in patients with Dyskeratosis Congenita or SAA, the stem cell transplant will replace the blood forming cells with healthy cells. It has recently been shown that healthy marrow can take and grow after transplantation which uses doses of chemotherapy and radiation that are much lower than that given to patients with leukemia. While high doses of chemotherapy and radiation may be necessary to get rid of leukemia, this may not be important to patients with Dyskeratosis Congenita or SAA. The purpose of this research is to see if this lower dose chemotherapy and radiation regimen followed by transplant is a safe and effective treatment for patients with Dyskeratosis Congenita or SAA.
Primary Objectives: 1. To determine the feasibility and toxicity of employing purine-analog based conditioning for allogeneic donor stem cell transplantation in patients with severe aplastic anemia (AA). 2. To determine the engraftment kinetics and degree of chimerism that can be achieved with this strategy.
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%.
This study will evaluate the safety and usefulness of a new immunosuppressive drug, alemtuzumab (Campath ), in patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA). SAA is a rare and serious blood disorder in which the bone marrow stops making red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Alemtuzumab is a monoclonal antibody that attaches to and kills white blood cells called lymphocytes. In certain types of aplastic anemia, lymphocytes are responsible for the destruction of stem cells in the bone marrow, leading to a decrease in blood counts. Because alemtuzumab destroys lymphocytes, it may be effective in treating aplastic anemia. Alemtuzumab is currently approved to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia and is also helpful in other conditions that require immunosuppression, such as rheumatoid arthritis and immune cytopenias. Patients 2 years of age and older with severe aplastic anemia whose disease does not respond to immunosuppressive therapy or has recurred following immunosuppressive therapy may be eligible for this study. Participants undergo the following tests and procedures: * Pretreatment evaluation: Patients have a medical history, physical examination, blood tests, electrocardiogram (EKG), echocardiogram, 24-hour Holter monitor (continuous 24-hour monitoring of electrical activity of the heart), bone marrow biopsy (withdrawal through a needle of a small sample of bone marrow for analysis). * Placement of a central line, if needed: An intravenous line (tube) is placed into a major vein in the patient's chest. It can stay in the body for the entire treatment period and be used to give chemotherapy or other medications, including antibiotics and blood transfusions, if needed, and to withdraw blood samples. * Alemtuzumab therapy: Patients are admitted to the NIH Clinical Center for the first few injections for close monitoring of side effects. After receiving an initial small test dose, patients begin the first of ten daily injections under the skin, each lasting about 2 hours. Once patients tolerate the infusions with minimal or no side effects, they may be given the remaining infusions on an outpatient basis. Patients who relapse after their initial response to alemtuzumab are given cyclosporine to see if this drug will boost their immune response. * Patients receive transfusions, growth factors, and antibiotic therapy, as needed. * Infection therapy: Patients are given aerosolized pentamidine to protect against lung infections and valacyclovir to protect against herpes infections. * A blood test is done and vital signs are measured every day while patients receive alemtuzumab. * Patients have an echocardiogram and 24-hour Holter monitor after the last dose of alemtuzumab. * Blood tests are done weekly for the first 3 months after alemtuzumab administration, then every other week until 6 months. Patients return to the NIH for follow-up visits 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and yearly for 5 years after the last dose of alemtuzumab for the following tests and evaluations: * Blood test * Repeat echocardiogram at 3-month visit * Repeat bone marrow biopsy 6 months and 12 months after alemtuzumab, then as clinically indicated for 5 years.