I am currently a third year oncology fellow pursuing a clinical research tract in the Transplantation Biology Program of the Clinical Research Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC). I am the principal investigator of anonmyeloablative transplant protocol (FHCRC Protocol 1463) in which hematopoietic stem cells from HLA matched unrelated donors are transfused after a conditioning regimen of fludarabine 30 mg/m2/day x 3 doses and 200 cGy total body irradiation (TBI) followed by novel immunosuppression with cyclosporine (CSP) mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) to treat patients with hematological malignancies. My immediate goals are to obtain essential training in biostatistics and protocol design to improve my ability to design and conduct clinical nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) protocols. My long-term goal is to become an independent academic clinical investigator in order to develop optimal treatment modalities for patients with hematological malignancies. The research career development plan to achieve this goal incorporates didactic courses in Biostatistics and clinical protocol design with established meetings, conferences and presentations within the Transplantation Biology Program and the Clinical Research Division of the FHCRC. The research component of this proposal includes the ongoing FHCRC Protocol 1463, and the development of phase II disease specific protocols using the nonmyeloablative transplant regimen or combining novel treatment modalities such as using the tyrosine kinase inhibitor STI-571 with nonmyeloablative HSCT in the treatment of bcr/abl expressing malignancies. The primary objective of FHCRC Protocol 1463 is to determine whether a nonmyeloablative, less toxic transplant regimen can safely establish hematopoietic allografts from unrelated donors, and whether graft-versus tumor responses will safely eradicate hematological malignancies. The information from this rapidly accruing trial will be used to design phase II disease specific protocols with HLA-matched unrelated donors to explore efficacy and prepare the groundwork for phase I protocols exploring nonmyeloablative transplants from HLA-mismatched related and unrelated donors.
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