Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Malignant Glioma

OBJECTIVES: * Determine the dose-limiting toxicity and maximum tolerated dose of autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cells in patients with malignant gliomas. * Determine survival, tumor progression, and cellular immune response in patients treated with this regimen. OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation study. Patients undergo leukapheresis for the collection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Autologous dendritic cells (DC) are prepared from autologous PBMC exposed to sargramostim (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 and pulsed with autologous tumor lysate. Patients receive autologous tumor lysate-pulsed DC intradermally on days 0, 14, and 28 in the absence of unacceptable toxicity. Cohorts of 6-12 patients receive escalating doses of autologous tumor lysate-pulsed DC until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 3 or 2 of 6 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity. Patients are followed every 2 months for 2 years. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 3-18 patients will be accrued for this study within 9-18 months.