Chemotherapy and Vaccine Therapy Followed by Bone Marrow or Peripheral Stem Cell Transplantation and Interleukin-2 in Treating Patients With Recurrent or Refractory Brain Cancer

OBJECTIVES: * Determine the effectiveness of induction paclitaxel and cyclophosphamide followed by autologous tumor cell vaccine and sargramostim (GM-CSF) followed by high-dose chemotherapy with cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, and carmustine, autologous bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, and interleukin-2 in patients with recurrent or refractory primary high-grade brain tumors. * Determine the safety and toxicity of this regimen in these patients. * Determine if a specific quantitative cellular response can be elicited in patients treated with this regimen. OUTLINE: After partial surgical resection of tumor, patients receive induction chemotherapy comprising paclitaxel IV over 3 hours and cyclophosphamide IV over 1 hour on day 1. Patients also receive filgrastim (G-CSF) subcutaneously (SC) daily beginning on day 3 and continuing until peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) or bone marrow collection is completed. After the collection of PBSC or bone marrow, patients receive autologous tumor cell vaccine and sargramostim (GM-CSF) SC once every 2 weeks for up to 5 vaccinations. Two weeks after the last vaccination, patients undergo a second leukapheresis to collect lymphocytes. After completion of the second leukapheresis, patients receive high-dose chemotherapy comprising cisplatin IV continuously over 24 hours on day -5, cyclophosphamide IV over 1 hour on days -5, -4, and -3, and carmustine IV over 2 hours on day -2. Patients undergo autologous bone marrow or PBSC transplantation on day 0. Patients receive G-CSF IV daily beginning on day 0 and continuing until blood counts recover. Approximately 12 weeks after bone marrow or PBSC transplantation, patients receive autologous lymphocytes IV over 2-5 hours. Patients also receive interleukin-2 IV once every other day for 10 days. Patients are followed at 18, 24, 36, 40, and 52 weeks. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 30 patients will be accrued for this study.