Cyclophosphamide Treatment Options in Los Angeles, CA

RATIONALE: Giving chemotherapy and total-body irradiation before a donor bone marrow transplant or peripheral blood 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. When the healthy stem cells from a donor are infused into the patient they may help the patient's bone marrow make stem cells, red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Sometimes the transplanted cells from a donor can make an immune response against the body's normal cells. Giving antithymocyte globulin before transplant and cyclosporine after transplant may stop this from happening. PURPOSE: This randomized clinical trial is studying how well giving antithymocyte globulin together with cyclosporine works in preventing graft-versus-host disease in patients who are undergoing chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy followed by donor stem cell transplant for acute lymphoblastic leukemia or acute myeloid leukemia. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effect on the body of combining cyclophosphamide with cisplatin, etoposide, and bleomycin in treating children who have newly diagnosed malignant germ cell tumors that are not in the brain and gonads. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug and giving the drugs in different combinations may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of standard combination chemotherapy treatment with more intensive combination chemotherapy in treating children with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as carboplatin and vincristine, work in different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Combining carboplatin and vincristine with radiation therapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Randomized phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy plus radiation therapy followed adjuvant chemotherapy in treating young patients who have newly diagnosed high-risk CNS embryonal tumors. Read Less

The purposes of this study are: 1. To find the highest dose of monthly intravenous Zometa that can be given with daily low doses of cyclophosphamide by mouth to children with recurrent or refractory neuroblastoma without causing severe side effects. 2. To find out the side effects seen by giving Zometa and cyclophosphamide on this schedule at different dose levels. 3. To measure blood and urine levels of Zometa during treatment 4. To preliminarily evaluate the antitumor activity of Zometa and concomitant oral cyclophosphamide in children with recurrent and/or refractory neuroblastoma within the confines of a Phase I study. 5. To measure the effects of Zometa on markers of bone breakdown found in urine, blood, and bone marrow 6. To measure the effects of Zometa on the immune system. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Combining more than one drug or combining chemotherapy with radiation therapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy followed by radiation therapy in treating patients who have surgically resected, newly diagnosed medulloblastoma or supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor, or incompletely resected ependymoma. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Vaccines made from a patient's tumor tissue may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. Chemotherapy combined with vaccine therapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining cyclophosphamide with tumor cell vaccine in treating patients who have metastatic cancer or cancer at high risk of recurrence. Read Less

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from donated tumor cells treated with interferon alfa may make the body build an immune response to and kill pancreatic tumor cells. Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Colony-stimulating factors may help a person's immune system recover from the side effects of chemotherapy. Combining these treatments may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining vaccine therapy using donated tumor cells treated with interferon alfa and radiation therapy and cyclophosphamide plus GM-CSF in treating patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. It is not known whether combining chemotherapy with bone marrow or peripheral stem cell transplantation is more effective than combination chemotherapy alone in treating men with germ cell tumors. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy with or without bone marrow or peripheral stem cell transplantation in treating men with previously untreated germ cell tumors. Read Less

RATIONALE: Keratinocyte growth factor may prevent symptoms of mucositis in patients receiving radiation therapy and chemotherapy. PURPOSE: Randomized phase II trial to study the effectiveness of keratinocyte growth factor in preventing oral mucositis in patients who have hematologic cancers and who are undergoing radiation therapy and chemotherapy before autologous peripheral stem cell transplantation. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Monoclonal antibodies such as rituximab can locate tumor cells and either kill them or deliver tumor-killing substances to them without harming normal cells. It is not yet known if combination chemotherapy is more effective with or without rituximab for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy with or without rituximab in treating older patients who have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining chemotherapy with peripheral stem cell transplantation may allow the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying peripheral stem cell transplantation with treated peripheral stem cells following combination chemotherapy to see how well it works compared to peripheral stem cell transplantation with untreated peripheral stem cells following combination chemotherapy in treating patients with neuroblastoma. Read Less