Donor Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant in Treating Patients With Hematologic Cancer

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• Determine the engraftment potential of umbilical cord blood (UCB) in patients with hematological cancers.
• Determine the safety of UCB transplantation in these patients.

Secondary

• Determine the rate of neutrophil and platelet recovery and the completeness of donor cell engraftment.
• Determine the incidence and severity of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease.
• Determine the incidence of relapse in patients with malignant disease.
• Determine the probabilities of survival and event-free survival (EFS) at 1 and 2 years after UCB transplantation.

OUTLINE: Patients are stratified according to degree of HLA disparity (0-1 vs 2-3 disparities between donor and recipient), donor type (related vs unrelated), and the basis of cell dose (< 2 vs ≥ 2 x 10^7 nucleated cells/kg recipient body weight). Patients are assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups according to disease*.

NOTE: *Patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), secondary acute myeloid leukemia (AML), severe combined immunodeficiency, familial erythrophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FEL)/viral-associated hemophagocytic syndrome (VAHS), inborn errors of metabolism, aplastic anemia, Fanconi's anemia, or Diamond-Blackfan anemia who have an unrelated umbilical cord blood donor may proceed directly to transplantation.

• Preparative regimen:

  • Group 1 (patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia, AML, myelodysplastic syndromes, or ALL): Patients receive cyclophosphamide IV once daily on days -7 and -6. Patients then undergo total-body irradiation (TBI) twice daily on days -4 to -1. Patients undergoing unrelated allogeneic umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT) also receive methylprednisone IV and anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) IV twice daily on days -2 and -1.
  • Group 2 (patients with infant leukemia): Patients receive busulfan orally or IV four times daily on days -9 to -6 and melphalan IV once daily on days -4 to -2. Patients undergoing unrelated allogeneic UCBT also receive methylprednisolone IV and ATG IV twice daily on days -2 and -1.
  • Group 3 (patients with inborn errors of metabolism): Patients receive busulfan orally or IV four times daily on days -9 to -6 and cyclophosphamide IV once daily on days -5 to -2. Patients undergoing unrelated allogeneic UCBT also receive methylprednisolone IV and ATG IV twice daily on days -2 and -1.
  • Group 4 (patients with aplastic anemia): Patients receive cyclophosphamide IV once daily on days -6 to -3 and ATG IV twice daily on days -5 and -3. Patients then undergo TBI once on day -2.
• Allogeneic UCBT: Patients undergo UCBT on day 0. Patients with inborn errors of metabolism receive methylprednisolone IV before and after UCBT on day 0.

• Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis: Patients receive 1 of the following regimens:

  • Related donor UCBT: Patients receive cyclosporine IV over 2 hours or orally beginning on day -3 and continuing until day 60.
  • Unrelated donor UCBT and myeloablative preparative regimen: Patients receive cyclosporine orally or IV over 2 hours twice daily beginning on day -3 and continuing until day 180. Patients also receive methylprednisolone IV twice daily on days 5-19.
  • Unrelated donor UCBT and nonmyeloablative preparative regimen: Patients receive cyclosporine IV over 2 hours or orally twice daily beginning on day -3 and continuing until day 180. Patients also receive mycophenolate mofetil IV or orally beginning on day 5 and continuing until day 30 or 7 days after active GVHD is controlled.

All patients receive filgrastim (G-CSF) IV beginning on day 1 and continuing until blood counts recover.

Patients are followed periodically for 2 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 60 patients will be accrued for this study.