Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients Who Have Received First-Line Therapy for Hodgkin's Lymphoma

KGEL Vaccine After Initial Therapy of Hodgkin's Lymphoma

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a tumor antigen may help the body build an effective immune response to kill tumor cells.

PURPOSE: This phase I/II trial is studying the side effects and how well vaccine therapy works in treating patients who have received first-line therapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine immunologic responses in patients who have completed first-line therapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma treated with Hodgkin's antigens-GM-CSF-expressing cell vaccine.
• Determine the durability of these immunologic responses in these patients.
• Determine the utility of an Epstein-Barr virus reporter system for monitoring cellular vaccine responses.
• Determine the safety and tolerability of this vaccine in these patients.

OUTLINE: Beginning 4-6 months after last chemotherapy, patients receive Hodgkin's antigens-GM-CSF-expressing cell vaccine on day 1. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks for up to 4 courses.

Immunologic responses are serially monitored along with disease status.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 35 patients will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of classic Hodgkin's lymphoma
• Must have completed first-line therapy without evidence of disease progression

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• HIV negative

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No more than 6 months since prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy