RATIONALE: Vaccines made from peptides and a person's white blood cells may help the body build an effective immune response to kill tumor cells. Injecting the vaccine directly into a lymph node may cause a stronger immune response and kill more tumor cells. Giving vaccine therapy before surgery may be effective treatment for ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast.

PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best way to give vaccine therapy in treating patients who are undergoing surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast.

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• Determine the feasibility and safety of neoadjuvant ultrasound-guided intranodal vaccine therapy comprising autologous dendritic cells pulsed with recombinant HER2/neu peptides in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast.
• Determine the sensitization of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells to HER2/neu in patients treated with this vaccine.
• Determine clinical response in patients treated with this vaccine.

Secondary

• Correlate post-vaccine sensitization of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells to HER2/neu with clinical response in patients treated with this vaccine.

OUTLINE: This is a pilot study.

Patients undergo leukapheresis over 2-3 hours to obtain lymphocytes and monocytes. Monocytes are cultured with sargramostim (GM-CSF), interleukin-4, interferon gamma, and lipopolysaccharides for the production of dendritic cells (DC). DC are then pulsed with recombinant HER2/neu peptides to produce the dendritic cell vaccine. Approximately 2 days after leukapheresis, patients receive the vaccine intranodally (into 2 different lymph nodes) by ultrasound guidance once a week for 4 weeks in the absence of unacceptable toxicity. Patients then undergo a second leukapheresis to obtain T lymphocytes for immunologic analysis. Within 2-3 weeks after completion of vaccine therapy, patients undergo lumpectomy or mastectomy AND sentinel lymph node biopsy.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 6 months for 5 years and then annually thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 30 patients will be accrued for this study within 3 years.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast OR DCIS with microinvasion (< 1 mm) by core biopsy or excisional biopsy

• HER2/neu positive tumor, defined as > 10% of the tumor population expressing HER2/neu by immunohistochemical staining

• No evidence of invasive disease by MRI (performed within the past month)

• Hormone receptor status:

  • Not specified

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• Over 18

Sex

• Not specified

Menopausal status

• Not specified

Performance status

• ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• No thrombocytopenia (i.e., platelet count < 75,000/mm^3)
• No other coagulopathy

Hepatic

• No hepatitis C positivity
• INR > 1.5
• PTT > 50 sec

Renal

• Not specified

Cardiovascular

• Ejection fraction ≥ 50% by MUGA or echocardiogram
• No major cardiac illness

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No HIV positivity
• No toxicity > grade 1
• No other pre-existing medical illness that would preclude study participation

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• Not specified

Chemotherapy

• Not specified

Endocrine therapy

• Not specified

Radiotherapy

• No prior ipsilateral breast or axillary radiotherapy

Surgery

• No prior ipsilateral axillary dissection
• No prior complete excisional biopsy for DCIS

Other

• No other prior definitive treatment for DCIS
• No concurrent medications that would preclude study participation