Clofarabine, Idarubicin, Cytarabine, Vincristine Sulfate, and Dexamethasone in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed or Relapsed Mixed Phenotype Acute Leukemia

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

I. To evaluate the response rate of the chemotherapy regimen in patients with mixed phenotype acute leukemia.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE:

I. To evaluate the durability of response, the overall and event-free survival rates, and the safety profile of the regimen.

OUTLINE:

INDUCTION THERAPY: Patients receive clofarabine intravenously (IV) over 60 minutes on days 1-4 or 1-3; idarubicin IV over 30-60 minutes on days 1-3 or 1-2; cytarabine IV over 2 hours on days 1-4; vincristine sulfate IV over 15-30 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15; and dexamethasone IV over 10-30 minutes on days 1-4 and 15-18. Patients with a certain type of leukemia may receive rituximab IV over 4-6 hours on days 1 and 8 or sorafenib tosylate orally (PO) twice daily (BID) on days 1-14. Treatment repeats every 28 days for up to 2 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

CONSOLIDATION THERAPY: Patients receive clofarabine IV over 60 minutes on days 1-3 or 1-2; idarubicin IV over 30-60 minutes on days 1-2; cytarabine IV over 2 hours on days 1-3 or 1-2; vincristine sulfate IV over 15-30 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15; and dexamethasone IV over 10-30 minutes on days 1-4 and 15-18. Patients with a certain type of leukemia may receive rituximab IV over 4-6 hours on days 1 and 8 of cycles 1-3 or sorafenib tosylate PO BID on days 1-28 of cycle 1-6 and beyond. Treatment repeats every 28 days for up to 6 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 30 days and then every 6 months thereafter.

Inclusion criteria

• Sign an informed consent document
• Newly diagnosed or relapsed mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL), which for this protocol, will be defined as follows: bone marrow result interpreted by the reading pathologist (or tissue biopsy for cases of extramedullary disease) as: biphenotypic leukemia, bilineal leukemia, undifferentiated leukemia, mixed lineage leukemia, leukemia of ambiguous lineage, T/myeloid leukemia, B/myeloid leukemia, or other diagnosis indicating the presence of multiple lineages within the cell population
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of =< 3 at study entry
• Adequate organ function as outlined below (unless due to leukemia)
• Serum creatinine =< 3 mg/dL
• Total bilirubin =< 2.5 mg/dL
• Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase [SGPT]) and/or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase [SGOT]) =< 3 x upper limit of normal (ULN) or =< 5 x ULN if related to disease
• Women of childbearing potential must have a negative serum or urine pregnancy test within 7 days; women of childbearing potential and men must agree to use contraception at study entry and for the duration of active study treatment
• Cardiac ejection fraction >= 40% (by either cardiac echocardiogram [echo] or multi gated acquisition [MUGA] scan); documentation of recent (=< 6 months from screening) outside reports is acceptable
• If newly diagnosed, prior therapy with hydrea and/or steroid and the use of a single or a two day dose of cytarabine (up to 3 g/m^2), for emergency use up to 24 hours prior to start of study therapy is allowed

Exclusion criteria

• Breast feeding females
• Patients with active, uncontrolled infections
• Patients with active secondary malignancy will not be eligible unless approved by the principal investigator