Study of C6 Ceramide NanoLiposome (CNL) in Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia

The research team has shown that C6 ceramide nanoliposome (CNL) has anti-cancer activity in laboratory models of AML and that when it is combined with other cancer-fighting drugs, it works better. The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the safety of CNL given without other cancer treatments in patients with AML where either their initial treatment didn't work or it stopped working and the AML came back (refractory or relapsed AML, aka RR-AML). This study seeks to determine the right dose to start with in later studies when CNL is combined with other drugs in potential future studies. CNL is given by intravenous (IV) infusion and will be given twice a week in this study. Participants will receive study treatment as long as it is considered safe for them to continue, though their disease status will be checked regularly to make sure that their disease has not gotten worse. Blood samples will be collected at many time-points to see how their bodies are responding to the drug and how long it stays in the blood. The first patients in the study will start at one dose of the drug and, if that is shown to be safe, the next group will be treated at a slightly higher dose. Participants will be given CNL by intravenous (IV) infusion twice a week over about 2 hours and then they will be monitored for about 2 hours to make sure they don't have any bad side effects, but initially patients will be required to stay at the site for about 6 hours after the start of the infusion in order to get blood draws to see how long the drug stays active in their system. Participants will have a bone marrow biopsy before their second "cycle" of drug (after about 1 month) and then again before their third cycle of drug in order to see how their disease is responding. After that, bone marrow biopsies will be about every other cycle based on what the study doctor recommends. If the doctor doesn't think that CNL is helping their disease, or if their doctor decides that it is not safe for them to continue, they will be taken off study treatment. Participants will be followed for safety and disease status for up to 6 months.