A Multicenter Study to Assess the Efficacy of 506U78 in Patients With Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Who Are Refractory to Fludarabine and Alkylator Therapy

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the anticancer efficacy of 506U78 in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia refractory to fludarabine and alkylator therapy. II. Determine the safety (including incidence of infection) of this drug in these patients. III. Evaluate the pharmacokinetics of 506U78 and ara-G, and assess the intracellular pharmacokinetics of ara-GTP in patients receiving multiple treatment courses (at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center only). IV. Determine the response rate, time to maximal response, and duration of response in patients treated with this drug. V. Determine two-year survival and progression-free survival of patients treated with this drug.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to cellular type of disease (B cell vs T cell). Patients receive 506U78 IV over 2 hours on days 1, 3, and 5. Treatment repeats every 28 days for a maximum of 8 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed at 28 days and then every 2 months for 2 years until disease progression. After disease progression, patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 14-100 patients will be accrued for this study.