PXD101 in Treating Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Aggressive B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

• Assess Number of Patients Who Achieve Confirmed and Unconfirmed Complete Response (CR) or Partial Response (PR) [ Time Frame: assessed at week 8, and every 3 months for 3 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Complete Response(CR) is a complete disappearance of all disease with the exception of nodes. No new lesions. previously enlarged organs must have regressed and not be palpable. Bone marrow(BM) must be negative if positive at baseline. Normalization of markers. CR Unconfirmed (CRU) does not qualify for CR above, due to a residual nodal mass or an indeterminate BM. Partial Response(PR) is a 50% decrease in the SPD for up to 6 identified dominant lesions, including spleenic and hepatic nodules from baseline. No new lesions and no increase in the size of liver, spleen or other nodes.
  
  

• Overall Survival [ Time Frame: assessed every 3 months for 3 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Measured from time of registration to death, or last contact date
  
  
• Progression-free Survival [ Time Frame: assessed at week 8, then every 3 months for 3 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Measured from date of registration to time of first documentation of progression or death, or last contact date. Progression is defined as a 50% increase in sum of products of greatest diameters (SPD) of target measurable lesions over the smallest sum observed (over baseline if no decrease during therapy) using the same techniques as baseline; appearance of a new lesion/site; unequivocal progression of non-measurable disease in the opinion of the treating physician; death due to disease without prior documentation of progression.
  
  

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Evaluate response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma treated with PXD101.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Determine the toxicity of this drug in these patients. II. Estimate the 6-month progression-free survival rate in patients treated with this drug.

TERTIARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Determine the major histocompatability complex of class II proteins (HLA-DR, -DP, -DQ), TUNEL, and CD8 infiltration status, by immunochemistry on paired pre- and post-treatment tumor samples, in the first 20 patients enrolled.

II. Measure CIITA and HLA-DR mRNA expression using quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and determine, preliminarily, the associations of these markers with progression-free survival.

III. Evaluate paired pre- and post-treatment peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients for histone acetylation status and determine correlation with findings from duplicate experiments on pre- and post-needle core biopsies.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients receive PXD101 IV over 30 minutes on days 1-5. Treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 2 years in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Needle core biopsies and peripheral blood mononuclear cells are obtained from the first 20 patients pre- and post-treatment for biomarker correlative studies.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 3-6 months for up to 3 years.