vaccine therapy in treating patients with lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma

Conditions: Lymphoplasmacytic Lymphoma

Summary: this phase i trial studies the side effects and best dose of vaccine therapy in treating patients with lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma. vaccines made from a person's cancer cells may help the body build an effective immune response to kill cancer cells.

primary objectives: i. to evaluate the safety and feasibility of using a novel lymphoma deoxyribonucleic acid (dna) vaccine encoding macrophage inflammatory protein 3 alpha (mip3a)-fused lymphoma idiotype in single chain format. ii. to determine the maximum tolerated dose (mtd) of the vaccine. secondary objectives: i. to assess the immunogenicity of the vaccine to generate tumor-specific cellular and humoral immune responses. outline: this is a dose-escalation study. patients receive autologous lymphoma immunoglobulin-derived single-chain variable fragment (scfv)-chemokine dna vaccine intradermally (id) at 0, 4, and 8 weeks. after completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 4 weeks, and then every 6 months for 1 year.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * tissue diagnosis of lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma with surface immunoglobulin g (igg), immunoglobulin a (iga) or immunoglobulin m (igm) phenotype with a monoclonal heavy and light chain as determined by flow cytometry; all primary diagnostic lymph node and/or bone marrow biopsies will be reviewed at the university of texas m.d. anderson cancer center (utmdacc) * previously untreated patients with lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (of any subtype: igg, iga, igm) in the asymptomatic phase * patients must provide a lymph node sample of at least 1.5 cm in the long axis, or a bone marrow aspiration sample providing at least 5 million cluster of differentiation (cd)20 and/or cd38+ (approximately 10 ml) * eastern cooperative oncology group (ecog) performance status of 0 or 1 * serum creatinine =\ = 30 ml/min * total bilirubin =\< 1.5 mg/dl unless felt secondary to gilbert's disease * aspartate aminotransferase (ast)/alanine aminotransferase (alt) =\< 2 x upper limit of normal * ability to provide informed consent, and to return to clinic for adequate follow-up for the period that the protocol requires * female subject is either post-menopausal or surgically sterilized or willing to use an acceptable method of birth control (i.e., a hormonal contraceptive, intra-uterine device, diaphragm with spermicide, condom with spermicide, or abstinence) for the duration of the study and for 30 days after the last vaccination has been administered * male subject agrees to use an acceptable method for contraception for the duration of the study exclusion criteria: * human immunodeficiency virus (hiv), hepatitis b and/or hepatitis c infection * pregnancy or lactating females * patients with previous history of malignancy within the last 5 years except curatively treated squamous or basal cell carcinoma of the skin or curatively treated carcinoma in-situ of other organs * any medical or psychiatric condition that in the opinion of the principal investigator would compromise the patient's ability to tolerate this treatment * patients with new york heart association class 3 or 4 disease * patients with a history of autoimmune diseases except for hashimoto's thyroiditis * patients with positive antinuclear antibody (ana) and/or anti-double strand (ds) dna antibodies