Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Kidney Cancer

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Histologically confirmed renal cell carcinoma
• Patients with minimal disease burden are eligible provided they meet one or more of the following criteria:
• * Prior nephrectomy and completely resected metastases
• * Favorable-risk group, as defined by all of the following criteria:
• * Karnofsky 80-100%
• * Hemoglobin ≥ 13 g/dL (male) or ≥ 12 g/dL (female)
• * Corrected calcium ≤ 10 mg/dL
• * Prior nephrectomy
• * Serum lactate dehydrogenase ≤ 200 μ/L
• * Prior nephrectomy with metastases confined to lung and/or small volume metastatic disease (\< 3 cm) exclusive of bone and liver
• No spinal, epidural, or CNS lesions
• No bone, liver or brain disease
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Age
• 18 and over
• Performance status
• See Disease Characteristics
• Karnofsky 80-100%
• Life expectancy
• Not specified
• Hematopoietic
• See Disease Characteristics
• WBC ≥ 3,500/mm\^3
• Hemoglobin ≥ 12.0 g/dL
• Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm\^3
• Hepatic
• Bilirubin \< 2.0 mg/dL
• SGOT \< 3.0 times upper limit of normal
• Renal
• See Disease Characteristics
• Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL OR
• Creatinine clearance ≥ 40 mL/min
• Cardiovascular
• No clinically significant cardiac disease
• No New York Heart Association class III or IV heart disease
• Pulmonary
• No severe debilitating pulmonary disease
• Other
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No other active secondary malignancy within the past 5 years except non-melanoma skin cancer
• No infection requiring antibiotic treatment
• No narcotic- or steroid-dependent pain
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy
• Not specified
• Chemotherapy
• At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy
• Endocrine therapy
• At least 4 weeks since prior corticosteroid therapy
• Radiotherapy
• At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy
• No concurrent radiotherapy to only measurable lesion
• Surgery
• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent surgery
• Other
• Recovered from all prior therapy
• No other concurrent anticancer therapy