BL-8040 and Nelarabine for Relapsed or Refractory T-Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia/ Lymphoblastic Lymphoma

The outcome of patients with relapsed or refractory adult T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and the related disease T-lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL) is extremely poor with 30% of the patients responding to first salvage therapy and long-term survival of only 10%. Therefore, novel therapies for patients with relapsed/refractory T-ALL/LBL represent an unmet clinical need. Recent data provide strong evidence that CXCR4 signaling plays a major role in T-cell leukemia cell maintenance and leukemia initiating activity, and targeting CXCR4 signaling in T-ALL cells reduces tumor growth in an animal model. In this study, the investigators propose that the addition of BL-8040 to nelarabine as a salvage therapy for patients with relapsed/refractory T-ALL/LBL will result in a higher complete remission (CR) rate than nelarabine alone without an increase in toxicity and will allow patients to proceed to a potentially curative allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant.