Patients with blood cancers that are not cured with a stem cell transplant do not have standard treatment options. Studies have shown that natural killer (NK) cells, a type of white blood cells, donated by another person can be given safely and may be helpful for treating some blood diseases. These NK cells are collected from the donor and purified before infusion into the patient.
In this study, researchers want to determine the effectiveness of giving NK cells to patients with leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) that has come back after a transplant and cannot be treated with a second transplant or with chemotherapy alone. They hope that giving chemotherapy and then NK cells will be a better treatment for these patients than currently available treatment options.