Vaccine Therapy Plus Interleukin-12 in Treating Patients With Metastatic Prostate Cancer That Has Not Responded to Hormone Therapy

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a patient's white blood cells may make the body build an immune response to kill cancer cells. Interleukin-12 may kill cancer cells by stopping blood flow to the tumor and by stimulating a person's white blood cells to kill cancer cells. Combining vaccine therapy with interleukin-12 may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of vaccine therapy combined with interleukin-12 in treating patients who have metastatic prostate cancer that has not responded to hormone therapy.

OBJECTIVES: * Determine whether immunization with prostate-specific membrane antigen-pulsed autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells and interleukin-12 can promote specific T-cell priming in patients with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. * Determine the clinical response in patients treated with this regimen. OUTLINE: Patients receive prostate-specific membrane antigen-pulsed autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells subcutaneously (SC) on day 1 and interleukin-12 SC on days 1, 3, and 5. Treatment repeats every 21 days for 3-9 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed every 3 months. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 12-37 patients will be accrued for this study within 37 weeks.