Traumeel® S in Preventing and Treating Mucositis in Young Patients Undergoing Stem Cell Transplantation

OBJECTIVES:

- Compare the efficacy of Traumeel® S vs placebo in reducing the severity and duration of
chemotherapy-induced (with or without total body irradiation) mucositis in pediatric
patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

- Determine the safety of this drug in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study. Patients
are stratified according to treatment with total body irradiation during conditioning
chemotherapy (yes vs no), type of transplantation (autologous vs allogeneic), and
participating institution (COG vs foreign). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment
arms.

- Arm I: Patients receive oral Traumeel® S mouth rinse 5 times daily beginning on day -1
before transplantation.

- Arm II: Patients receive oral placebo mouth rinse 5 times daily beginning on day -1
before transplantation.

In both arms, treatment continues until day 20 post-transplantation OR until mucositis
resolves to Walsh score ≤ 1 for 2 consecutive days.

Patients are followed until day 100 post-transplantation.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 180 patients (90 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this
study within 2 years.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Planned treatment with allogeneic or autologous hematopoietic stem cell
transplantation

- Conditioning chemotherapy regimen for transplantation must be myeloablative

- Source of stem cells from any of the following:

- Bone marrow

- Placental cord

- Cytokine-mobilized peripheral blood

- Availability of 1 of the following donor types:

- HLA-matched sibling or parent

- Related donor mismatched for a single HLA locus (class I or II)

- Unrelated marrow or peripheral blood stem cell donor

- Unrelated umbilical cord blood HLA-matched or mismatched (class I) donor

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

- 3 to 25

Performance status

- Not specified

Life expectancy

- Not specified

Hematopoietic

- Not specified

Hepatic

- Not specified

Renal

- Not specified

Other

- No known allergy to Echinacea

- Not pregnant or nursing

- Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

- See Disease Characteristics

Chemotherapy

- See Disease Characteristics

Endocrine therapy

- Not specified

Radiotherapy

- Not specified

Surgery

- Not specified

Other

- No concurrent oral vancomycin paste

- No concurrent oral glutamine supplementation

- No other mouth care or oral medications within 30 minutes after administration of
study drugs

- No other concurrent treatment to prevent mouth sores