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Immune Suppression Treatment for People With Sickle Cell Disease or Beta-Thalassemia Who are Going to Receive an Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT)

Trial Status: active

This phase II trial tests how well immune suppression drugs given before standard conditioning therapy and allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) works in preventing serious side effects, including graft failure and graft versus host disease (GvHD) in transplant patients with sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. Sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia are blood diseases caused by a genetic change (mutation) in hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. In people with sickle cell disease, the red blood cells take on an abnormal “sickle” shape that blocks blood flow and causes pain or damage to organs in the body. In people with beta-thalassemia, the body cannot make enough of a protein called beta-globin. This reduces the production of hemoglobin and means the body does not get enough oxygen. HCT involves receiving healthy blood-forming cells (stem cells) from a donor to replace the diseased or damaged cells in the bone marrow. Before HCT, people normally receive standard conditioning therapy to suppress (restrain) their immune system and prepare their body for HCT. Two serious side effects of HCT are graft failure and GvHD. In graft failure, the transplanted stem cells did not grow successfully inside the body. GvHD occurs when the donor’s T cells (white blood cells that are part of the immune system) attack the cells of the recipient’s body. Chemotherapy drugs, such as fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, bortezomib, rituximab, rabbit antithymocyte globulin, and busulfan work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Treatment with fludarabine and dexamethasone and/or cyclophosphamide, bortezomib and rituximab, drugs that lower the activity of the body's immune system (immune suppression), before standard conditioning therapy with rabbit antithymocyte globulin and busulfan followed by HCT may help prevent serious side effects, including graft failure and GvHD, in patients with sickle cell disease or beta-thalassemia.