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A Study of Melphalan in People with Lymphoma Getting an Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplant

Trial Status: active

This phase IV trial seeks to evaluate the feasibility of using population pharmacokinetic (PK) modeling to personalize drug dosage in lymphoma patients receiving carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan hydrochloride/sulfobutyl ether beta-cyclodextrin complex (melphalan) followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (BEAM-AHCT). Pharmacokinetics refers to the way the body absorbs, distributes, and gets rid of a drug. Population PK modeling uses PK information based on people who have previously received the drug to calculate the drug's optimal dose. Chemotherapy drugs, such as carmustine, cytarabine and melphalan, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Etoposide is in a class of medications known as podophyllotoxin derivatives. It blocks a certain enzyme needed for cell division and deoxyribonucleic acid repair and may kill cancer cells. Giving chemotherapy before a stem cell transplant helps kill cancer cells in the body and helps make room in the patient's bone marrow for new blood-forming cells to grow. However, standard dosages of chemotherapy drugs like melphalan can have significant side effects. Using the population PK model may allow researchers to calculate an optimal dose for melphalan, which would be just as effective at killing cancer cells as the standard dosage, but have fewer side effects.