vaccine therapy in treating patients with stage iii-iv or recurrent ovarian cancer

Conditions: Stage III Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Stage III Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor; Stage IV Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Stage IV Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor

Summary: this phase i trial is studying the side effects of vaccine therapy in treating patients with stage iii-iv or recurrent ovarian cancer. vaccines made from deoxyribonucleic acid (dna) may help the body build an effective immune response to kill tumor cells.

primary objectives: i. to determine the safety of an insulin like growth factor binding protein 2 (igfbp-2) th polyepitope plasmid based vaccine in patients with advanced stage or recurrent ovarian cancer. secondary objectives: i. to determine the immunogenicity of igfbp-2 th polyepitope plasmid based vaccine in patients with advanced stage or recurrent ovarian cancer. ii. to determine whether intermolecular epitope spreading occurs with the generation of an igfbp-2 specific th1 immune response. iii. to determine whether igfbp-2 vaccination modulates t regulatory cells. outline: patients receive pumvc3-higfbp-2 multi-epitope plasmid dna vaccine intradermally (id) monthly for 3 months. after completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months, and then every 6 months for 5 years.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * patients with advanced stage (iii/iv) or recurrent ovarian cancer who have been treated to complete remission with standard therapies including primary debulking surgery * cancer antigen 125 (ca-125) level within normal limits for the testing laboratory must be documented 90 days prior to enrollment when the assessment of ca-125 is applicable * patients must be at least 28 days post cytotoxic chemotherapy, and/or monoclonal antibody therapy, prior to enrollment * patients must be at least 28 days post systemic steroids prior to enrollment * patients must have eastern cooperative oncology group (ecog) performance status score of =\< 2 * patients must have recovered from major infections and/or surgical procedures, and in the opinion of the investigator, not have any significant active concurrent medical illnesses precluding protocol treatment * estimated life expectancy of more than 6 months * white blood cell (wbc) \>= 3000/mm\^3 * hemoglobin (hgb) \>= 10 mg/dl * hematocrit (hct) \>= 28% * serum creatinine =\ 60 ml/min * total bilirubin =\< 2.5 mg/dl * aspartate aminotransferase (ast)/serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (sgot) =\< 3 times upper limit of normal (uln) * blood glucose \< 1.5 uln exclusion criteria: * patients with any of the following cardiac conditions: symptomatic restrictive cardiomyopathy; unstable angina within 4 months prior to enrollment; new york heart association functional class iii-iv heart failure on active treatment; symptomatic pericardial effusion * uncontrolled diabetes * patients with any contraindication to receiving sargramostim (rhugm-csf) based products * ovarian cancer of a low malignant potential phenotype or clear cell histology * patients with any clinically significant autoimmune disease uncontrolled with treatment * patients who are currently receiving an anti-igf-ir monoclonal antibody as part of their treatment regimen * patients who are simultaneously enrolled in any other treatment study * all subjects able to bear children

Keywords: ovarian cancer vaccine stage iii stage iv remission