Giving Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) Specific Killer T Lymphocytes to Patients Who Have Had Donor Marrow Grafts

Completed · Phase 1

Conditions studied: Epstein-Barr Virus Infections

In brief

Patients have a type of blood cell cancer or other blood problem that is very hard to cure with standard treatments and s/he will receive a bone marrow transplant. If the patient does not have a brother or sister whose marrow is a "perfect match", this bone marrow will come from a donor whose marrow is the best match available. This person may be a close relative or an unrelated person whose bone marrow best "matches" the patient's, and who agrees to donate marrow. In normal people, the Epstein-Barr (EB) virus infection causes a flu like illness and usually gets better when the immune system controls the infection. The virus, however, remains hidden in the body for life. After a transplant, while the new immune system is growing back, the EB virus can come out and infect cells and cause them to grow in an uncontrolled manner. Patients can develop fevers, swollen lymph nodes and damage to other organs such as kidneys and lungs. This infection acts like a cancer because the cells infected with EB virus grow very quickly and there is no known effective treatment. This sort of infection will occur in between 10-30% of patients receiving a transplant from a donor who is not a perfect match, and has been fatal in nearly all these cases. This infection occurs because the immune system cannot control the growth of the cells. We want to see if we can prevent it from happening or treat it by giving the patient a kind of white blood cell called T cells that we have grown from the marrow donor. These cells have been trained to attack EB virus infected cells. We will grow these T cells from blood taken from the donor at the time of bone marrow harvest. These T cells will be stimulated with the donor's EB virus-infected cells which have been treated with radiation so they cannot grow. After mixing these cells together we will be able to grow special T cells from the donor that can attack EB virus infected cells. We will then collect the T cells and make sure they can kill the virus infected cells. These EBV specific T cells are an investigational product not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00058812

Run by

Baylor College of Medicine

People needed

69

Starts

1993-05-01

Expected to finish

2014-07-01

Last updated by the study team

2015-01-29

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• All patients receiving a T cell depleted BMT from a mismatched family member or unrelated donor will be eligible for this protocol. In addition, patients receiving a matched sibling transplant or T replete transplant may be eligible if they are at high risk of developing EBV LPD because of their underlying disease (e.g Wiskott-Aldrich or Ataxia Telangiectasia) or have a past history of EBVLPD or other EBV associated malignancy.
• O2 saturation > 90% on room air

You may not qualify if…

• Exclusion criteria for BMT will be as detailed in the relevant protocol.
• Exclusion criteria at time of administration CTLs:
• Patients with GVHD of Grade II or greater.
• Patients with severe renal disease (i.e., creatinine clearance less than half normal for age).
• Patients with severe hepatic disease (bilirubin greater than twice normal, or SGOT greater than 3 x normal).
• Patients with a severe intercurrent infection.
• Patients with a life expectancy <6 weeks

Where it is running

• Houston Methodist Hospital — Houston, Texas, United States
• Texas Children's Hospital — Houston, Texas, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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