Study Status: No longer available
Recruit Status: No longer available
Study Type: Expanded Access
Official Title: Expanded Access Protocol: Most Closely HLA Matched Allogeneic Virus Specific Cytotoxic T-Lymphocytes (CTL) to Treat Persistent Reactivation or Infection With Adenovirus, CMV and EBV After HSCT
Brief Summary:
Subjects have a type of blood cell cancer, other blood disease or a genetic disease for which they received a stem cell transplant. After transplant while the immune system grows back the subjects have an infection with one or more of three viruses - Epstein Barr virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus (CMV) or adenovirus - that has persisted or come back despite standard therapy.
Adenovirus is a virus that causes symptoms of a common cold normally but can cause serious life-threatening infections in patients who have weak immune systems. It usually affects the lungs and can cause a very serious pneumonia, but it can also affect the gut, the liver, the pancreas and the eyes.
CMV is a virus that can also cause serious infections in patients with suppressed immune systems. It usually affects the lungs and can cause a very serious pneumonia, but it can also affect the intestinal tract, the liver and the eyes. Approximately 2/3 of normal people harbor this virus in their body. In healthy people CMV rarely causes any problems because the immune system can keep it under control. If the subject and/or the subject's donor are positive for CMV, s/he is at risk of developing CMV disease while his/her immune system is weak post transplant.
EBV is the virus that causes glandular fever or kissing disease. It is also normally controlled by a healthy immune system, but when the immune system is weak, it can cause fevers, enlarged lymph nodes and sometimes develop into a type of cancer called lymphoma.
This treatment with specially trained T cells (called CTLs) has had activity against these viruses when the cells are made from the transplant donor. However, as it takes 2-3 months to make the cells, that approach is not practical when the subject alre