Cladribine With Simultaneous or Delayed Rituximab to Treat Hairy Cell Leukemia

Study Summary

Background: Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is highly responsive to but not curable by cladribine (CdA). HCL responds to rituximab, which is not yet standard therapy for HCL. Patients with the interleukin 2 (IL-2) receptor (CD25)-negative hairy cell leukemia variant (HCLv) respond poorly to initial cladribine but do respond to rituximab in anecdotal reports. Deoxycytidine kinase phosphorylates cladribine to chlorodeoxyadenosine triphosphate (CdATP), which incorporates into deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), leading to DNA strand breaks and inhibition of DNA synthesis. Rituximab is an anti-cluster of differentiation 20 (CD20) monoclonal antibody which induces apoptosis and either complement or antibody dependent cytotoxicity (antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) or complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC). Patients in complete remission (CR) to cladribine have minimal residual disease (MRD) by immunohistochemistry of the bone marrow biopsy (BMBx IHC), a risk for early relapse. Tests for HCL MRD in blood or marrow include flow cytometry fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using consensus primers. The most sensitive HCL MRD test is real-time quantitative PCR using sequence-specific primers real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR). In studies with limited follow-up, MRD detected by tests other than RQ-PCR can be eliminated by rituximab after cladribine in greater than 90 percent of patients, but MRD rates after cladribine alone are unknown. Simultaneous cladribine and rituximab might be superior or inferior to delaying rituximab until detection of MRD. Only 4 HCL-specific trials are listed on Cancer.gov: a phase II trial of cladribine followed 4 weeks later by 8 weekly doses of rituximab, and phase I-II trials of recombinant immunotoxins targeting cluster of differentiation-22 (CD22) (BL22, HA22) and CD25 (LMB-2). Objectives: Primary: To determine if HCL MRD differs at 6 months after

Primary Outcome

Participants with newly diagnosed Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL) and once relapsed HCL were split and both groups were randomized to receive either simultaneous treatment with Cladribine and Rituxan or Cladribine with Rituxan given no earlier than 6 months after cladribine as needed. Outcome measured by Bone Marrow and Blood Flow cytometry and histochemistry of the core biopsy at the 6 months after start of treatment time point. If all three were negative for hairy cells participants were in a minima

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• DRUG Cladribine
• DRUG Rituximab
• DIAGNOSTIC_TEST MRI
• DIAGNOSTIC_TEST EKG
• PROCEDURE BMbx

Study Locations (1)