Palifermin With Leuprolide Acetate for the Promotion of Immune Recovery Following Total Body Irradiation Based T-Cell Depleted Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

The purpose of this study is to help determine if palifermin and leuprolide acetate can help the immune system recover faster following a stem cell transplant. Blood stem cells are very young blood cells that grow in the body to become red or white blood cells or platelets. The transplant uses stem cells in the blood from another person. The donor can be a family member or a volunteer donor. This is called an allogeneic stem cell transplant. The investigators want to see if palifermin and leuprolide acetate can help the immune system recover faster after an allogenic transplant because experiments have shown they may be able to do this.

Patients will be randomized to one of two arms: palifermin with Lupron, and control. The control arm consists of a standard TCD allo-HSCT without the addition of palifermin or Lupron. Patients randomized to receive Lupron will receive a three month depot dose 3-6 weeks prior to the start date of the pre-transplant conditioning regimen. Patients assigned to receive palifermin will receive this drug at 60mcg/kg/day IV on three consecutive days, 24 hours apart with the last dose administered no less than 24 and no more than 48 hours prior to the start of cytoreduction. The preparative regimen to be used for transplants will consist of: hyperfractionated TBI administered in 11 doses over 4 days for a total of 1375 cGy, thiotepa 5 mg/kg/day IV x 2 days and cyclophosphamide with mesna prophylaxis 60 mg/kg/day IV x 2 days. All patients will receive ATG for two doses prior to transplant, except recipients of mismatched grafts (in the GVHD vector) will receive three doses. G-CSF mobilized CD34 PBSCs obtained from the HLA compatible donor will be infused on day 0. Patients assigned to receive palifermin will receive three additional daily doses of the drug, the first approximately 6 hours after the stem cell infusion on day 0, followed by two daily doses given at 24 hour intervals on d+1 and d+2. Patients assigned to receive Lupron will receive a further 3-month depot injection approximately 3 months (+/- one week) post the first dose. Supportive care will be administered as per the BMT Service guidelines. The conditioning regimen may be modified to allow an extra day during conditioning or prior to the graft infusion if required by donor and/or patient scheduling restrictions.