Vaccine Therapy and Sargramostim in Treating Patients With Pancreas Cancer That Cannot Be Removed By Surgery

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine the tolerability of delivering two standard doses of the PANVAC-F (fowlpox) (falimarev) vaccine administered intratumorally in conjunction with subcutaneous injections of PANVAC-V (vaccinia) (inalimarev) followed by PANVAC-F (fowlpox) in conjunction with rH-GM-CSF (sargramostim) versus (vs.) subcutaneously injected PANVAC-V or PANVAC-F in conjunction with rH-GM-CSF in patients with incurable pancreatic cancer based on local unresectability or with small volume metastases. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To assess the toxicity of the vaccine injections. II. To assess evidence of tumor response by imaging and tumor marker response. III. To assess gene transfer to pancreatic tissue. IV. To assess immunologic response to PANVACTM. OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation study of falimarev. Patients receive falimarev vaccine intratumorally using endoscopic ultrasound guidance on day 1. Patients also receive inalimarev vaccine subcutaneously (SC) on day 1 and sargramostim SC on days 1-4. Patients then receive falimarev vaccine SC on days 15 and 29 and sargramostim SC on days 15-18 and 29-32 in the absence of unacceptable toxicity. Beginning on day 43, patients with stable or improving pancreatic cancer receive falimarev vaccine SC and sargramostim SC (given on the day of and for 3 days after each falimarev vaccination) monthly in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Beginning on day 71, patients with no irreversible or dose limiting toxicity, receive falimarev vaccine SC and sargramostim SC (given on the day of and for 3 days after each falimarev vaccination) monthly in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients undergo biopsy periodically for correlative studies. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 3 months.