RATIONALE: Studying immune response to flu vaccine in patients who have undergone a stem cell transplant may help doctors plan the best treatment.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying flu vaccine to see how well it works in preventing infection in patients who have undergone a stem cell transplant and in healthy volunteers.

OBJECTIVES:

• Examine the humoral and cellular memory immune responses to influenza immunization in patients who have undergone autologous or allogeneic hematologic stem cell transplantation.
• Examine the impact of graft-vs-host disease on immune reconstitution and vaccine response in these patients.
• Examine the impact of age ≥ 60 years on immune reconstitution after vaccination in these patients.
• Examine and compare the cellular memory immune response to influenza immunization in healthy volunteers versus the response in these patients.
• Examine the differences between CD8, CD4, and antibody response to circulating flu strains compared to immune response to flu vaccination in immunized vs non-immunized patients who were transplanted at a similar time and from the same transplant source.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to transplantation type and response (allogeneic HCT with no acute or chronic GVHD vs allogeneic HCT with acute or chronic GVHD vs autologous HCT) and patient age (≥ 60 years vs < 60 years).

Beginning 100-364 days post-transplantation patients receive vaccine to immunize against influenza A serotypes specific for influenza seasons 2006-2008, and/or vaccine to immunize against influenza A and B serotypes specific for influenza seasons 2009-2011. Healthy participants receive vaccine to immunize against influenza A serotypes specific for influenza season 2007-2008.

Blood samples from patients and healthy participants are collected at baseline and at days 30, 90, 180, and 360 post-vaccination for humoral immunity and antibody analysis by ELISA and hemagglutination-inhibition test (HAI) testing.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Meets 1 of the following criteria:

  • Patient at the City of Hope or Kaiser hospital who underwent prior autologous or allogeneic matched-related hematologic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) or matched-unrelated HSCT for treatment of hematological malignancies, including aplastic anemia or myelodysplastic syndromes

    • Eligible (in accordance with physician's recommendation) to receive the vaccine influenza A serotypes specific for the 2006-2007 or 2007-2008 influenza season

    • Eligible (in accordance with physician's recommendation) to receive the vaccine influenza A or B serotypes specific for the 2009-2010 or 2010-2011 influenza season

      • Patients who are not vaccinated are followed under the study protocol once they are matched to a vaccinated patient on the date of transplant and source of transplant

    • All HLA serotypes allowed

  • Employee volunteer from the City of Hope

    • Meets the requirements for influenza vaccination
    • Eligible to receive the CDC recommended vaccine for influenza A serotypes specific for the 2007-2008 flu season as part of occupational health's vaccination initiative
    • All HLA serotypes allowed

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Life expectancy > 9 months

• No HIV seropositivity

• No hepatitis B or C seropositivity

  • Hepatitis B-positive serology by vaccination allowed

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior influenza vaccination after transplantation

Stem cell donors, Autologous and Allogeneic HCT patients, Normal volunteers