Cyclophosphamide Plus Cyclosporine in Treatment-Naive Severe Aplastic Anemia

Summary

Background: * Severe aplastic anemia (SAA) can lead to problems with bone marrow health and result in low blood cell counts, which require frequent transfusions. Standard treatment for SAA involves injections of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) plus cyclosporine (CsA). This regimen has been shown to improve the blood counts in about two-thirds of patients. However, the ATG/CsA regimen has the following limitations: (a) the disease can come back (relapse) in about one-third of patients who improve initially; and (b) in about 10% to 15% of cases, certain types of bone marrow cancer (such as myelodysplasia and leukemia) can develop (called evolution). Experience with other drugs in SAA such as cyclophosphamide suggests that similar response rates to ATG/CsA can be achieved with a lower risk of relapse and clonal evolution. However, cyclophosphamide was found to have significant side effects in SAA when investigated over 10 years ago due to increase risk of fungal infections. * Better antibiotic drugs against fungus have been developed and are widely used to treat patients who have low white blood cell counts and are at risk of developing infections. In SAA patients in particular, these newer antibiotics have had a large impact in preventing and treating fungus infections. Researchers are revisiting the use of cyclophosphamide in SAA treatment, and plan to give a lower dose of CsA in combination with the immune-suppressing drug cyclophosphamide, as well as antibiotics to protect against infections, as a possible treatment for the disease. Objectives: \- To determine the safety and effectiveness of the combination of cyclophosphamide and cyclosporine in treating severe aplastic anemia that has not been treated with immunosuppressive therapy.

Timeline

Start

2010-08

Primary completion

2014-09

Completion

2014-09

Publications

• Background Rosenfeld S, Follmann D, Nunez O, Young NS. Antithymocyte globulin and cyclosporine for severe aplastic anemia: association between hematologic response and long-term outcome. JAMA. 2003 Mar 5;289(9):1130-5. doi: 10.1001/jama.289.9.1130.
• Background Young NS, Calado RT, Scheinberg P. Current concepts in the pathophysiology and treatment of aplastic anemia. Blood. 2006 Oct 15;108(8):2509-19. doi: 10.1182/blood-2006-03-010777. Epub 2006 Jun 15.
• Background Scheinberg P, Nunez O, Wu C, Young NS. Treatment of severe aplastic anaemia with combined immunosuppression: anti-thymocyte globulin, ciclosporin and mycophenolate mofetil. Br J Haematol. 2006 Jun;133(6):606-11. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2141.2006.06085.x.
• Zaimoku Y, Patel BA, Adams SD, Shalhoub R, Groarke EM, Lee AAC, Kajigaya S, Feng X, Rios OJ, Eager H, Alemu L, Quinones Raffo D, Wu CO, Flegel WA, Young NS. HLA associations, somatic loss of HLA expression, and clinical outcomes in immune aplastic anemia. Blood. 2021 Dec 30;138(26):2799-2809. doi: 10.1182/blood.2021012895.
• Scheinberg P, Townsley D, Dumitriu B, Scheinberg P, Weinstein B, Daphtary M, Rios O, Wu CO, Young NS. Moderate-dose cyclophosphamide for severe aplastic anemia has significant toxicity and does not prevent relapse and clonal evolution. Blood. 2014 Oct 30;124(18):2820-3. doi: 10.1182/blood-2014-05-573642. Epub 2014 Sep 3.

Drugs

Indications