This research study investigates the benefits and possible risks of adding both etanercept (Enbrel) and ECP (extracorporeal photopheresis) to the conventional preventative (or prophylactic) treatments for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). GVHD is a common, serious, and too often fatal, complication after matched unrelated donor stem cell transplantation, regardless of the pre-transplant conditioning regimen used (full or reduced intensity). Reduced intensity transplants which employ lower doses of chemotherapy during the conditioning phase of the transplant, are less toxic than full intensity transplants. Reduced intensity transplants may extend the unrelated donor transplant option to older patients or to patients with existing medical conditions or illness, where a full intensity transplant is not possible. To be successful, reduced intensity transplants need to offset any lower effectiveness in killing cancer cells during the conditioning phase, with the establishment of a donor cell, graft-versus-leukemia effect (GVL). The GVL effect and GVHD are associated with each other and therefore, the goal of GVHD prophylaxis for this study is not so much to prevent all GVHD, but rather to prevent serious and fatal acute GVHD. Most GVHD-related deaths are either the direct consequence of severe GVHD or from infections associated with intense immunosuppression, a consequence of the standard treatments for acute GVHD, which almost always include high-dose steroids. A more effective prophylaxis therapy that allows for the GVL effect to develop, while limiting the exposure to high-dose steroids may reduce transplant mortality and morbidity. We also will study how key chemical and cellular factors relate to clinical outcome.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
48
reduced intensity, matched unrelated donor stem cell transplant
Tacrolimus(or cyclosporine when necessary) Tacrolimus will begin on day -3, IV or oral. Target trough level for tacrolimus is 8-12 ng/ml. In the absence of GVHD, tacrolimus tapering will begin on day +56 post transplant
Mycophenolate will begin on day 0 at 10 mg/kg/dose (up to 1 gram per dose) every 8 hours orally or intravenously and will continue until day 28.
Etanercept will be given at a dose 0.4 mg/kg (actual weight) up to a maximum dose of 25 mg, subcutaneously, twice weekly from day 0 to day 56 (16 doses)
Methoxsalen (UVADEX) treatments by Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) will be started day +28 post transplant and given weekly. On day +70 post transplant ECP frequency will be given every other week. On day +100 post transplant ECP will be given monthly until day +180 and stopped.
University of Michigan Cancer Center
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Percentage of Patients Alive at 6 Months
Overall survival at 6 months
Time frame: 6 months
Percentage of Patients Who Experienced Relapse by 6 Months
Relapse rate at 6 months. Relapse is defined as recurrence of disease.
Time frame: 6 months
The Percentage of Patients That Experienced Graft Versus Host Disease
Incidence of acute GVHD grades 2-4 and chronic GVHD in this study population
Time frame: 6 Months
Measured Level of Circulating Plasma Markers After Transplant
Time frame: 100 days
Regulatory T Cell Numbers Post-transplant
Time frame: 180 days
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