Lactobacillus in Preventing Infection in Patients Undergoing a Donor Stem Cell Transplant for Hematologic Cancer or Myelodysplastic Syndrome

OBJECTIVES:

- To determine if patients who are treated with a probiotic-containing diet develop
infection with one of the probiotic microorganisms while undergoing allogenic
hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for a hematologic malignancy or myelodysplastic
syndrome.

OUTLINE: Patients receive oral Lactobacillus rhamosus GG (Culturelle DS) once daily
beginning when blood counts have recovered without filgrastim (G-CSF) or sargramostim
(GM-CSF) support for 3 consecutive days and continuing for 1 year after transplantation.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Currently undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation from a related or unrelated
donor for a hematologic malignancy or myelodysplastic syndrome

- Hematopoietic engraftment as evidenced by recovery of the absolute neutrophil count >
1000/μL for > 3 days without filgrastim (G-CSF) support within 30 days of transplant

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- ECOG performance status 0-2

- Serum creatinine ≤ 2.0

- AST or ALT ≤ 3 times upper limit of normal (ULN)

- Total bilirubin ≤ 2.0 times ULN

- No clostridium difficile enterocolitis diagnosed during the transplant
hospitalization in the peri-transplant period

- Able to take medications by mouth

- No evidence of graft-vs-host disease

- No history of inflammatory bowel disease or other chronic diarrheal illness

- No history of hypersensitivity to milk proteins

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- See Disease Characteristics

- More than 3 months since prior use of probiotics supplements, excluding yogurt and
cheeses with live cultures

- No concurrent over-the-counter medications or herbal remedies