an effectiveness and safety study of decitabine in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome

Conditions: Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Summary: the purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of decitabine in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome (name of a group of conditions that occur when the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow are damaged) in chinese patients.

this is a prospective (look forward using periodic observations collected predominantly following patient enrollment), open-label (all people involved in the study know the identity of the assigned drug), phase iiib study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of decitabine in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome (mds). patients are randomized (study drug assigned by chance) in 1:1 ratio to receive treatment with decitabine either 3-day or 5-day course of therapy. when a minimum of 30 patients are reached for 3-day course of therapy, the rest of the patients will all be enrolled into 5-day course of therapy. each patient in the study treated for a minimum of 4 cycles; however, a complete or partial response may take longer than 4 cycles. the entire study duration for each patient will be approximately two years. safety will be evaluated for each patient by monitoring of adverse events, physical examinations, vital signs measurements, electrocardiogram, hematology and clinical chemistry testing.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * must have diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (mds) denovo (previously not present) or secondary as per the classification of french-american-british (fab) and international prognostic scoring system (ipss) greater than or eaul to 0.5 as determined by complete blood count (cbc), bone marrow assessment and bone marrow cytogenetics * must have an eastern oncology cooperative group (ecog) performance status of 0-2 * must have adequate hepatic and renal function as measured by the aspartate transaminase (ast), alanine transaminase (alt), total bilirubin and serum creatinine, respectively * must have recovered from all toxic effects of prior therapy and not received any chemotherapy for a minimum of 4 weeks (6 weeks if the patient has been treated with a nitrosoureas) prior to the first dose of study drug - woman must be postmenopausal, or surgically sterile, or abstinent, or, if sexually active, be practicing an effective method of birth control (eg, oral contraceptives, contraceptive injections, intrauterine device, double-barrier method, contraceptive patch, male partner sterilization) exclusion criteria: * must not have a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (greater than 30% bone marrow blasts) - must not have received radiotherapy within 14 days before the first dose of study drug - must not have any other prior cancer, other than superficial bladder cancer, basal cell skin and cervical cancer - must not have associated autoimmune hemolytic anemia or immune thrombocytopenia and inaspirable bone marrow - must not have a mental illness or any other condition (eg, uncontrolled cardiac or pulmonary disease, diabetes), that could prevent full cooperation with the study requirements.

Keywords: myelodysplastic syndrome dacogen oncology decitabine bone marrow disorders