New vaccine aims to shield transplant patients from deadly virus

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * All subjects must have the ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent * Participant must be willing to comply with study and/or follow-up procedures, including willingness to be followed for one year post-HCT * Planned peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) or bone marrow (BM) HCT for the treatment of the following hematologic malignancies: * Lymphoma (Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin) * Myelodysplastic syndrome * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in first or second remission (for acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoblastic lymphoma, the disease status must be in hematologic remission by bone marrow and peripheral blood. Persistent lymphadenopathy on computed tomography \[CT\] or CT/positron emission tomography \[PET\] scan without progression is allowed.) * Acute myeloid leukemia in first or second remission * Chronic myelogenous leukemia in first chronic or accelerated phase, or in second chronic phase * Other hematologic malignancies judged appropriate by the clinical principal investigators (PIs), including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, myeloproliferative disorders and myelofibrosis. Patients with multiple myeloma and those with non-malignant disease such as aplastic anemia are excluded * Adult cases of multiple myeloma (MM) are excluded as HCT is not standard of care for MM, and is only performed in very advanced cases with an associated high risk of relapse and NRM. Adults with aplastic anemia are excluded because their standard management includes T cell depletion with agents such as anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG), which is not permissible on this protocol. Patients undergoing a second haploHCT are not eligible (patients who have undergone a previous autologous HCT are eligible) * Patients receiving myeloablative (MA) or reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) are allowed * CMV seropositive (recipient) * Planned related HCT with molecular 3/6 (haploidentical) intermediate/high resolution HLA donor allele matching * Planned HCT with minimal to no-T cell depletion of graft * Conditioning and immunosuppressive regimens according to institutional guidelines are permitted * Negative serum or urine beta human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) test (female patient of childbearing potential only) within two weeks of registration * Seronegative for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and active hepatitis B virus (HBV) (surface antigen negative) within 2 months of registration and no history of disseminated cutaneous human papillomavirus (HPV) related disease * Agreement by females of childbearing potential and sexually active males to use an effective method of contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control or abstinence) prior to study entry and for up to d90 post-HCT. Should a woman become pregnant or suspect that she is pregnant while participating on the trial, she should inform her treating physician immediately Exclusion Criteria: * Any prior investigational CMV vaccine * Experimental anti-CMV chemotherapy in the last 6 months * Live attenuated vaccines (from the time of HCT to d70 post-HCT) * Medically indicated subunit (Engerix-B for HBV; Gardasil for HPV) or killed vaccines (e.g. influenza, pneumococcal, or allergy treatment with antigen injections) (from the time of HCT to d70 post-HCT) * Allergy treatment with antigen injections (from the time of HCT to d70 post-HCT) * Alemtuzumab or any equivalent in vivo T-cell depleting agent (or CD34+ selection) (from the time of HCT to d70 post-HCT) * Antiviral medications with known therapeutic effects on CMV such as ganciclovir (GCV)/valganciclovir (VAL), foscarnet (FOS), cidofovir, CMX-001, maribavir. Acyclovir has no known therapeutic efficacy against CMV and is allowable as standard of care to prevent herpes simplex virus (HSV) (from the time of HCT to d70 post-HCT) * Prophylactic therapy with CMV immunoglobulin or prophylactic antiviral CMV treatment EXCEPT Prevymis prophylaxis (prior to d100) (from the time of HCT to d70 post-HCT) * Conditioning regimens d30 prior to trial participation and up to d180 post-HCT * Disease-based radiation therapy (not total body irradiation) (from the time of HCT to d70 post-HCT) * Other investigational product - concurrent enrollment in other clinical trials using any investigational new drugs (IND) with unknown effects on CMV or with unknown toxicity profiles is prohibited (from the time of HCT to d70 post-HCT) * Other medications that might interfere with the evaluation of the investigational product (from the time of HCT to d70 post-HCT) * Patients with active autoimmune conditions requiring systemic immunosuppressive therapy within the previous 5 years are not eligible * Patients considered by PIs/protocol team to have a complicated prior therapy or HCT regimen, or who have a low survival probability (e.g., refractory leukemia and/or undergoing 2nd HCT) * Poor risk disease/disease status including: chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in blast crisis, acute myeloid leukemia (AML)/acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) beyond 2nd remission, multiple myeloma, and aplastic anemia * Pregnant women and women who are lactating. Triplex risks to pregnant women are unknown. Because there is an unknown but potential risk for adverse events in nursing infants secondary to treatment of the mother with the administered vaccine, also breastfeeding should be discontinued if the mother is enrolled on this study * Any other condition that would, in the investigator's judgment, contraindicate the patient's participation in the clinical study due to safety concerns or compliance with clinical study procedures, e.g., social/ psychological issues, etc. * Prospective participants who, in the opinion of the investigator, may not be able to comply with all study procedures (including compliance issues related to feasibility/logistics)