OTI-010 for Graft-Versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis in Treating Patients Who Are Undergoing Donor Peripheral Stem Cell Transplantation for Hematologic Malignancies

RATIONALE: OTI-010 may be effective for graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis (prevention) in patients who are undergoing donor peripheral stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies (cancer of the blood or bone marrow). PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying how well OTI-010 works in preventing graft-versus-host disease in patients who are undergoing donor peripheral stem cell transplantation for hematologic cancer.

OBJECTIVES: * Compare the safety and efficacy of OTI-010 vs placebo as graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis in patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing HLA-identical sibling matched peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. OUTLINE: This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to age (18 to 34 vs 35 to 55) and donor/recipient gender (female donor/male recipient vs female donor/female recipient vs male donor/female recipient vs male donor/male recipient). * Conditioning regimen: Patients receive cyclophosphamide IV once daily on days -5 and -4 and undergo total body irradiation twice daily on days -3 to -1 OR busulfan IV over 2 hours every 6 hours on days -7 to -4 and cyclophosphamide IV once daily on days -3 and -2. * Graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis: Patients receive methotrexate IV on days 1, 3, 6, and 11. Patients also receive cyclosporine orally or IV (over 1-4 hours) twice daily beginning on day -1 and continuing for at least 6 months followed by a taper until 1 year after transplantation. * OTI-010 therapy: Patients are randomized to 1 of 3 treatment arms. * Arm I: Patients receive placebo IV 4 hours before peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) on day 0. * Arm II: Patients receive OTI-010 IV 4 hours before PBSCT on day 0. * Arm III: Patients receive a higher dose of OTI-010 IV 4 hours before PBSCT on day 0. * Allogeneic stem cell transplantation: Patients undergo allogeneic PBSCT on day 0. Patients are followed at 18 weeks, at 6, 9, and 12 months, every 6 months for 1 year, and then annually for 3 years. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 99 patients (33 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study within 5 months.