Trial Information

Autologous Purged Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML)

Before treatment starts, you will have a complete physical exam. You will have about 4
tablespoons of blood drawn for tests to check on the status of the disease, to check organ
functions, and to check for infectious diseases (hepatitis, HIV, etc.). You will have a
sample of bone marrow collected. To collect a bone marrow sample, an area of the hip or
chest bone is numbed with anaesthetic and a small amount of bone marrow is withdrawn through
a large needle. You will also have heart (cardiac ejection fraction) and lung function
tests. All of these tests are being done to make sure you are eligible for this treatment.

In order to access the blood in the circulation, a silicone catheter (small plastic tube)
will be placed in the collar bone area. You will be under local anesthesia during this
procedure. If you are found to be eligible to take part in this study, this catheter will be
used for the collection of stem cells, infusion of chemotherapy, fluids, electrolytes, other
medications, and also for blood sampling for lab tests. It will remain in your body for the
length of the treatment (between 2-5 months).

Normally, there are very few stem cells in the blood. The majority of them are in the bone
marrow. To help move or "mobilize" the cells needed from your bone marrow to your blood, you
will be given chemotherapy followed by injections under the skin once a day of a drug called
G-CSF and another drug called GM-CSF. These injections will be given over 7-21 days. The
injections may be given by a nurse in the hospital, in the outpatient setting, or you may
learn how to give them to yourself.

The chemotherapy you will receive to help mobilize the stem cells is cyclophosphamide. It
will be given by vein over a few hours in one day. This is the first step toward collecting
the stem cells necessary for transplantation later on. It is separate from the high-dose
chemotherapy that you get after the transplant.

Blood samples (about 4 teaspoons each) will be drawn once a day after the cyclophosphamide
to check for the numbers of stem cells in your blood and to monitor for possible side
effects. If the number of stem cells in the blood is high enough, you will go to the
UTMDACC Apheresis Unit and have your peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC, or stem cells)
collected.

The procedure to collect your cells is called leukapheresis. It is similar to donating
platelets to a blood bank. The cells will be removed from the blood through the catheter
and the remaining blood will be given back to you through the catheter. This procedure is
performed in a machine that processes the blood and separates the cells needed for
transplantation, giving the rest back to you. Each leukapheresis procedure takes about 4-6
hours. You will have one leukapheresis procedure a day, for 1 to 5 days in a row, until
enough stem cells are collected for the transplant and for ""back-up" in case of problems
with the treated cells. If after 5 procedures, the number of cells collected is too low,
additional collections of cells may be needed.

Some people may not be able to have enough cells collected through the blood. If this is
the case, you may need to have bone marrow stem cells collected. You will be taken to the
operating room and have multiple collections of bone marrow performed. The procedure will be
performed while you are under general anesthesia. About 1 - 1.5 liters of bone marrow will
be collected. You will be asked to donate your own blood before the procedure if possible.
That blood will be given back to you in the operating room. Somebody else's blood may be
given to you instead if you cannot donate.

After enough stem cells are collected, the cells will be treated in the laboratory, using
Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) followed by ex vivo culture/purging. Culture-purging is a method
that takes advantage of the fact that CML cells die when kept in laboratory culture in a
shorter time period than normal blood cells. If the cells are kept alive long enough,
surviving cells will be less contaminated by CML cells. Imatinib mesylate will provide a
chemical way of killing the CML cells, since they are more toxic to CML cells than they are
to normal cells. The culture-purging will also use three medications called "growth
factors". The medications being used are stem cell factor, G-CSF, and thrombopoietin.

Busulfan and cyclophosphamide are chemotherapy drugs that are designed to kill leukemia
cells. However, the combination will kill a significant amount of your bone marrow cells,
which will basically stop the production of blood components. In order to restart the
production, the cells that were removed and treated in the lab will be given back to you
(autologous transplant).

You will be admitted to the hospital to receive high dose chemotherapy. You will be given
busulfan by continuous injection (using the catheter) for 4 days, then you will be given
cyclophosphamide by a continuous injection (using the catheter) for 2 days. You may also
receive antibiotics, fluids, and other medications if your doctor feels it is necessary.

After you receive the chemotherapy, you will be given your treated bone marrow or blood
stem cells back. To help speed up the recovery of white blood cells, you will also be given
G-CSF by injection under the skin once a day until the white blood count has recovered
(usually 2 to 3 weeks) and GM-CSF under the skin for a month. You may also receive
antibiotics, fluids, and other medications if your doctor feels it is necessary. Blood
tests (about 4 teaspoons) are repeated several times per week until blood counts are fully
recovered and any side effects of the high dose therapy have resolved.

You will have check-up visits 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the transplant. At these visits,
you will have bone marrow samples collected to monitor the disease response. Bone marrow
samples may also be collected for research at the same time points. These samples will be
used to determine the survival of stem cells in laboratory conditions after the transplant.
You will have blood collected (1- 4 tablespoons) for routine blood tests.

This is an investigational study. Busulfan, cyclophosphamide, G-CSF and GM-CSF are
commercially available drugs. Up to 48 patients will take part in this study. All will be
treated at M. D. Anderson.