Vaccine Therapy and Sargramostim in Treating Patients With Sarcoma or Brain Tumor

RATIONALE: Vaccines may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. Colony-stimulating factors such as sargramostim increase the number of immune cells found in bone marrow or peripheral blood. Combining vaccine therapy with sargramostim may cause a stronger immune response and kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects of vaccine therapy when given together with sargramostim in treating patients with advanced sarcoma or brain tumor.

OBJECTIVES:

* Determine the feasibility of treatment with telomerase: 540-548 peptide vaccine and sargramostim (GM-CSF) in patients with sarcoma or brain tumor.
* Determine the safety and tolerability of this regimen in these patients.
* Determine the frequency of T-cell specific vaccine antigens during and after administration of this regimen in these patients.
* Determine, preliminarily, the clinical response, if any, of patients treated with this regimen.

OUTLINE: Patients receive telomerase: 540-548 peptide vaccine subcutaneously (SC) on day 3 and sargramostim (GM-CSF) SC on days 1-4 of weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 19, and 23.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 35 patients (20 adult and 15 pediatric) will be accrued for this study.

Eligibility Criteria:
DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Histologically or cytologically confirmed diagnosis of 1 of the following malignancies:

  * Stage III or IV sarcoma, including:

    * Leiomyosarcoma
    * Synovial cell sarcoma
    * Liposarcoma
    * Gastrointestinal stromal tumor
  * Brain tumor, including:

    * Diffuse pontine glioma\*
    * Glioblastoma multiforme
    * Glialsarcoma NOTE: \*For patients with diffuse pontine glioma, the requirement for histologic verification may be waived
* No known curative therapy
* HLA A\*0201 positive by genotyping

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

* Over 2

Performance status

* Karnofsky 60-100% (patients over age 16)
* Lansky 60-100% (patients under age 16)

Life expectancy

* Not specified

Hematopoietic

* WBC greater than 3,000/mm\^3
* Absolute neutrophil count greater than 1,500/mm\^3
* Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm\^3

Hepatic

* AST and ALT less than 2.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
* Bilirubin less than 1.5 times ULN

Renal

* Creatinine less than 1.5 times ULN

Cardiovascular

* No clinically significant cardiovascular disease

Pulmonary

* No clinically significant pulmonary disease

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

* No prior hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
* No other concurrent vaccine therapy
* No other concurrent immunotherapy

Chemotherapy

* No prior chemotherapy
* No concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

* Concurrent dexamethasone allowed provided patient has been on a decreasing dose for the past 2 weeks and the current dose is the lowest clinically acceptable dose (ideally, less than 9-12 mg/day)

Radiotherapy

* No prior extensive-field radiotherapy that would compromise bone marrow function
* At least 2 weeks since prior local radiotherapy

Surgery

* At least 2 weeks since prior surgery

Other

* At least 2 weeks since prior imatinib mesylate
* No concurrent local anesthetic to administration site of vaccine