Conditions: B-cell Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Remission Graft Versus Host Disease L1 Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia L2 Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia T-cell Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 146
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This randomized phase III trial is studying tacrolimus, methotrexate, and sirolimus to see how well they work compared to tacrolimus and methotrexate in preventing graft-versus-host disease in young patients who are undergoing donor stem cell transplant for intermediate-risk or high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia in second complete remission and high risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia in first remission. Giving chemotherapy, such as thiotepa and cyclophosphamide, and total-body irradiation before a donor stem cell transplant helps stop the growth of cancer cells. It also helps stop the patient's immune system from rejecting the donor's stem cells. The donated stem cells may replace the patient's immune cells and help destroy any remaining cancer cells (graft-versus-tumor effect). Sometimes the transplanted cells from a donor can also make an immune response against the body's normal cells. Giving tacrolimus, methotrexate, and sirolimus after the transplant may stop this from happening. It is not yet known whether tacrolimus and methotrexate are more effective with or without sirolimus in preventing graft-versus-host disease.

Detailed description:
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Compare the post-transplant 2-year event-free survival of pediatric patients with intermediate-risk or high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in second complete remission or high risk ALL in first remission undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation treated with graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis comprising tacrolimus and methotrexate with or without sirolimus.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Compare rates of relapses, transplant-related mortality, and acute and chronic GVHD in these patients.

II. Evaluate the relative contribution of resistance by ALL blasts to cytolytic therapy (e.g., chemotherapy/irradiation) as a cause of relapse post-transplantation by correlating ALL in vivo blast resistance with in vivo sirolimus, inhibition levels of the mTOR pathway in patients treated with sirolimus, and altered resistance pathways in ALL blasts measured by microarray analysis.

III. Evaluate the relative contribution of resistance by ALL blasts to the donor immune response as a cause of relapse post-transplantation by correlating the development of donor anti-ALL T-cell response, the development of acute and/or chronic GVHD, and the detection of altered ALL blast immunogenicity after transplant with increased minimal residual disease, persistent recipient chimerism, and relapse.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, open-label, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to specific combinations of risk (intermediate CR2 vs high CR2 vs high CR1), donor type (matched sibling vs unrelated or other related), and stem cell source (filgrastim \[G-CSF\]-primed bone marrow vs unprimed bone marrow vs bone marrow vs peripheral blood vs umbilical cord blood).

PREPARATIVE REGIMEN: Patients undergo total-body irradiation twice daily on days -8 to -6 and receive thiotepa IV on days -5 and -4 and cyclophosphamide IV on days -3 and -2.

ALLOGENEIC HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION: Patients undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation on day 0.

GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST DISEASE (GVHD) PROPHYLAXIS: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

ARM I: (experimental) Patients receive tacrolimus IV continuously or orally (when able) daily beginning on day -2 followed by a taper beginning on day 42 and continuing until day 98 (for patients undergoing matched sibling donor transplantation) OR tacrolimus IV continuously or orally daily beginning on day -2 followed by a taper beginning on day 100 and continuing until day 180 (for patients undergoing related, unrelated, or cord blood donor transplantation) in the absence of GVHD. Patients also receive methotrexate IV on days 1, 3, and 6 (for patients with matched sibling and umbilical cord blood donors) OR days 1, 3, 6, and 11 (for patients with unrelated bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell donors) and oral sirolimus daily beginning on day 0 followed by a taper beginning on day 180 and continuing until day 207.

ARM II: (control) Patients receive tacrolimus and methotrexate as in arm I.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed periodically for approximately 5 years.

Arms:
arm 1: Preparative regimen of total body irradiation (TBI) 200 cGy BID days -8,-7, \& -6, Thiotepa IV (dose 5 mg/kg/day on days -5 \& -4) \& cyclophosphamide IV (dose 60 mg/kg/day on days -3 \& -2). Tacrolimus IV (dose 0.02 mg/kg/day) continuously or orally daily on day -2 with a taper starting on day 42 - day 98 (patients undergoing matched sibling donor transplantation) OR tacrolimus IV (dose 0.02 mg/kg/day) continuously or orally daily beginning on day -2 followed by a taper on day 100 through day 180 (patients undergoing other related, unrelated, or cord blood donor transplantation) in the absence of GVHD. Patients also receive methotrexate IV (5 mg/m2/dose) on days 1,3, \& 6 (patients with matched sibling and umbilical cord blood donors) OR days 1,3 6, \& 11 (patients with other related/unrelated bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell donors) and oral sirolimus (dose 2.5mg/m2/day - 4 mg max starting dose) daily starting on day 0 followed by a taper starting on day 180 through day 207. arm 2: Preparative regimen of total body irradiation (TBI) 200 cGy BID days -8,-7, \& -6, Thiotepa IV (dose 5 mg/kg/day on days -5 \& -4) \& cyclophosphamide IV (dose 60 mg/kg/day on days -3 \& -2). Tacrolimus IV (dose 0.02 mg/kg/day) continuously or orally (when able) daily on day -2 with a taper starting on day 42 - day 98 (patients undergoing matched sibling donor transplantation) OR tacrolimus IV (dose 0.02 mg/kg/day) continuously or orally daily beginning on day -2 followed by a taper on day 100 through day 180 (patients undergoing other related, unrelated, or cord blood donor transplantation) in the absence of GVHD. Patients also receive methotrexate IV (5 mg/m2/dose) on days 1,3, \& 6 (patients with matched sibling and umbilical cord blood donors) OR days 1,3 6, \& 11 (patients with other related/unrelated bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell donors).

Interventions: intervention 1: thiotepa intervention 2: cyclophosphamide intervention 3: tacrolimus intervention 4: methotrexate intervention 5: sirolimus intervention 6: total body irradiation
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Given IV intervention 2: Given IV intervention 3: Given IV or orally intervention 4: Given IV intervention 5: Given orally intervention 6: Part of the transplant preparatory regimen

Protocol document: