Cytotoxic T-Lymphocytes for the Prophylaxis of Cytomegalovirus After Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant

Patients have a type of blood cell cancer, other blood disease or a genetic disease for which they will receive a stem cell transplant. The donor of the stem cells will be either a brother or sister or another relative or a closely matched unrelated donor. We are asking patients to participate in this study which tests if blood cells from the donor that have been grown in a special way, can prevent the patients from getting an infection with a virus called Cytomegalovirus or CMV. CMV is a virus that can 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 patient and/or their donor is positive for CMV, they are at risk of developing CMV disease while the patients immune system is weak post transplant. Usually, this risk is highest during the first 3-4 months after the transplant. CMV disease can be prevented during this time in most people by using drugs that can kill the virus such as Ganciclovir, Foscarnet, or Cidofovir . However, these medications have many side effects and have to be given daily by vein for approximately 4-5 months after transplant. One of the side effects is that it takes the new immune system much longer to develop an effective defense against the virus. Therefore, once the medicines are stopped, the patients still have a chance to develop CMV disease. We want to see if we can use a kind of white blood cell called T cells that we have grown from the stem cell donor instead of the regular treatment with Ganciclovir or Foscarnet to prevent CMV from "flaring up". These cells have been trained to attack CMV virus infected cells. We will grow these T cells from blood taken from the donor before the patients transplant. T