Giving Gene Marked EBV Specific T-Cells to Patients Receiving a BMT for Relapsed EBV-Positive Hodgkin Disease

Overview

Subjects have a type of lymph gland cancer called Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, which has come back or not gone away after treatment, including the best treatment we know for relapsed Lymphoma. We are asking subjects to volunteer to be in a research study using Epstein Barr virus (EBV) specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes, a new experimental therapy. This therapy has never been used in patients with Hodgkin disease or this type of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma but it has been used successfully in children with other types of blood cancer caused by EBV after bone marrow transplantation. Some patients with Hodgkin disease or non-Hodgkin Lymphoma show evidence of infection with the virus that causes infectious mononucleosis Epstein Barr virus (EBV) before or at the time of their diagnosis of Lymphoma. EBV is often found in the cancer cells suggesting that it may play a role in causing Lymphoma. The cancer cells infected by EBV are very clever because they are able to hide from the body's immune system and escape destruction. We want to see if we can grow special white blood cells, called T cells, that have been trained to kill EBV infected cells and give them back to subjects.

We will take 60-70 ml (12 teaspoonfuls) of blood from the subject. We will first make a B cell line called a lymphoblastoid cell line or LCL by infecting the subjects blood with a laboratory strain of EBV called B95. We will then use use this EBV infected cell line (which have been treated with radiation so that they cannot grow) as stimulator cells and mix it with more blood. This stimulation will train the T cells to kill EBV infected cells and result in the growth of an EBV specific T cell line. We will then test the T cells to make sure that they kill the EBV infected cells and not your normal cells and freeze them. The cells will be thawed and injected into subjects over 10 minutes, after pretreatment with Tylenol and Benadryl. A total of two doses will be given two weeks apart. All of the treatments will be given at Texas Children's Hospital or The Methodist Hospital. We will follow subjects in the clinic after the injections. At each visit about 10ml (2 teaspoonfuls) of blood will be taken every other week for 6 weeks after the injection and then every 3 months for 1 year to monitor the subjects blood chemistry and hematology. To learn more about the way the T cells are working in the subjects body, an extra 40mls (8 teaspoons) of blood will be taken pre-infusion, 3-4 days post infusion (optional) and at 1, 2, 4 and 6 weeks post-infusion and then at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. The blood may be drawn from the subjects central line at the time of their regular blood tests.