Cyclophosphamide Treatment Options in Philadelphia, PA

RATIONALE: Surgery alone may be effective in treating children with neuroblastoma. PURPOSE: Phase III trial to study the effectiveness of surgery alone in treating children who have neuroblastoma. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage cancer cells. Giving combination chemotherapy together with radiation therapy may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying how well giving chemotherapy together with radiation therapy works in treating patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia that has relapsed in the CNS and/or testes. 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 them in different ways may kill more cancer cells. It is not yet known which regimen of combination chemotherapy is more effective for acute lymphoblastic leukemia PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare different regimens of combination chemotherapy in treating children who have newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Read Less

This pilot, phase II trial studies the side effects of giving bortezomib together with combination chemotherapy and to see how well it works in treating young patients with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia or lymphoblastic lymphoma. Bortezomib may stop the growth of cancer cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving bortezomib together with combination chemotherapy may kill more cancer cells. Read Less

This is a clinical research trial in which a novel preparatory regimen was developed for bone marrow transplant (BMT) which eliminates the primary obstacle to transplant, the lack of a matched sibling donor. It is believed this regimen is sufficiently efficacious and sufficiently gentle to apply to patients with sickle cell anemia and related disorders. It is proposed to characterize the efficacy and toxicity of this regimen in high risk patients with sickle cell anemia using criteria for patient selection that have been accepted in prior BMT trials in patients with sickle cell disease, specifically only the subset of patients whose prior clinical behavior indicates that they are at high risk for serious morbidity and early mortality. In addition, it is proposed to characterize the pathophysiology of a consistent febrile response seen in the haploidentical BMT regimen the investigators have developed at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU). The primary goal of this study is to determine the response rate to a reduced intensity conditioning regimen which consists of fludarabine, cytarabine, low dose total body irradiation and cyclophosphamide in patients with severe sickle cell anemia. Read Less

The primary hypothesis of this research study is that patients in remission undergoing myeloablative haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) on the Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) 2 Step treatment regimen will have a disease-free survival (DFS) rate at 1 year that is the same or better than the historical DFS of patients with similar diagnoses and ages undergoing matched sibling HSCT. Based on a review of the literature a DFS rate of 50% or better at 1 year would meet the criterion for an effective alternative therapy. A DFS rate of 75% or better would imply superior efficacy of the TJU 2 Step approach over T-replete matched sibling HSCT. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to develop a way of treating patients who do not have a completely matched family donor or a readily available unrelated donor with bone marrow transplant by using a partially-matched family donor. Patients receiving this type of transplant will receive chemotherapy and/or radiation to treat their disease. They will also receive their donor's cells in 2 parts. During the first part, the donor's lymphocytes will be exposed to one of the chemotherapy agents to help the patient become tolerant to the lymphocytes. In the second part of the transplant, the patient will receive their donor's stem cells to help recover their peripheral blood counts and establish long-term engraftment. The hypothesis of this study is that in partially-matched allogeneic transplant, there is a defined number of donor T-cells that can be treated and given to the recipient to avoid post-transplant infection without causing severe graft-versus-host disease. Read Less

The purpose of this research study is to determine if an experimental agent, LLME can decrease the incidence and severity of Graft-Versus-Host-Disease (GVHD) following blood (hematopoietic) stem cell transplantation Read Less

This phase II clinical trial studies how well two donors stem cell transplant work in treating patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies. After receiving radiation to help further treat the disease, patients receive a dose of donors' T cells. T cells can fight infection and react against cancer cells. Two days after donors' T cells are given, patients receive cyclophosphamide (CY) to help destroy the most active T cells that may cause tissue damage (called graft versus host disease or GVHD). Some of the less reactive T cells are not destroyed by CY and they remain in the patient to help fight infection. A few days after the CY is given, patients receive donors' stem cells to help their blood counts recover. Using two donors' stem cell transplant instead of one donor may be more effective in treating patients with high-risk disease and may prevent the disease from coming back. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of standardized systemic therapy versus fluocinolone acetonide implant therapy for the treatment of severe cases of non-infectious intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis, or panuveitis. Read Less

This study will develop a national cord blood bank for siblings of patients with hemoglobinopathies and thalassemia. Read Less

The primary purpose of this study is to determine whether breast cancer tumors respond (as measured by pathologic complete response: the absence of microscopic evidence of invasive tumor cells in the breast) to combined chemotherapy of AC(doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide) followed by paclitaxel plus trastuzumab or lapatinib or both given before surgery to patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. Trastuzumab will also be given to all patients after surgery. The study will also evaluate the toxic effects of the chemotherapy combination, including effects on the heart, and will determine survival and progression-free survival 5 years after treatment. Also, the study will look at whether there are gene expression profiles in the tumor tissue that can predict pathologic complete response. Read Less