S0114 Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Gastric, Prostate, or Ovarian Cancer

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a peptide may make the body build an immune response to kill cancer cells.

PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying two different vaccines to treat patients who have gastric, prostate, or ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

* Determine the toxicity of EGFRvIII peptide vaccine with sargramostim (GM-CSF) or keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) as adjuvant in patients with EGFRvIII-expressing cancer.
* Determine the preexisting antibody and T-cell responses to EGFRvIII in these patients.
* Determine the antibody and T-cell responses to EGFRvIII peptide after immunization with this vaccine with GM-CSF or KLH as adjuvant.

OUTLINE: Patients are assigned to one of two treatment arms.

* Arm I: Patients receive a vaccine containing EGFRvIII peptide admixed with sargramostim (GM-CSF) intradermally monthly.
* Arm II: Patients receive a vaccine containing EGFRvIII peptide admixed with keyhole limpet hemocyanin subcutaneously monthly.

Treatment in both arms continues for 6 months in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 24 patients (12 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study.

Eligibility Criteria:
DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Histologically confirmed diagnosis of one the following:

  * Stage II-IV gastric cancer
  * Stage IIC-IV ovarian cancer in first complete remission

    * CA 125 normal and stable\*
  * Grade III anaplastic astrocytoma
  * Stage IV (M1) prostate adenocarcinoma

    * No small cell variations
    * No biochemical progression after definitive surgery, defined by the following:

      * Prostate-specific antigen more than 0.4 ng/mL which remains elevated on 2 additional measurements at least 2 weeks apart after prostatectomy
      * Three consecutive rises in PSA, each at least 1 month apart after definitive radiotherapy
    * Must be receiving androgen blockade
    * PSA less than 5 ng/mL and stable\*
* Documented EGFRvIII expression in primary tumor
* Must have received prior surgery and or chemoradiotherapy for disease (except prostate cancer patients) NOTE: \*Stable defined as no increase over 2 measurements at least 28 days apart with the last measurement within the past 28 days

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

* 80 and under

Performance status:

* Zubrod 0

Life expectancy:

* Not specified

Hematopoietic:

* WBC at least 3,000/mm\^3
* Platelet count at least 100,000/mm\^3
* Hemoglobin at least 10 g/dL

Hepatic:

* SGOT no greater than 2.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
* Alkaline phosphatase no greater than 2.5 times ULN
* No hepatitis

Renal:

* Not specified

Other:

* No other malignancy in the past 5 years except adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer, carcinoma in situ of the cervix, or adequately treated stage I or II cancer in complete remission
* No contraindication to receiving sargramostim (GM-CSF) or KLH-based vaccine products
* No autoimmune disease
* HIV negative
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

* Not specified

Chemotherapy:

* See Disease Characteristics
* At least 1 month since prior cytotoxic chemotherapy
* No concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

* See Disease Characteristics
* At least 1 month since prior treatment dose corticosteroids
* No concurrent corticosteroids

Radiotherapy:

* See Disease Characteristics
* No concurrent radiotherapy

Surgery:

* See Disease Characteristics

Other:

* Recovered from all prior therapies
* No concurrent enrollment on other phase I studies
* No other concurrent immune modulators