Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Diagnosis of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

- Disease involving at least 30% of bone marrow or circulating blasts

- Must meet 1 of the following conditions:

- In first relapse with at least 1 of the following high-risk features:

- Age under 1 year at diagnosis

- Age over 18 years at diagnosis

- t(9;22)

- Occurrence of first relapse less than 18 months after diagnosis

- In second relapse or beyond

- Refractory disease

- Successful generation of adequate CD40 ligand-activated autologous tumor cell vaccine

- Less than 1 year since tumor cell collection

- Patients in first relapse or beyond must be ineligible for or have declined
allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in order to receive study vaccine

- Patients need not be in complete remission to receive study vaccine

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

- See Disease Characteristics

Performance status:

- Lansky 60-100% OR

- Karnofsky 60-100%

Life expectancy:

- Not specified

Hematopoietic:

- See Disease Characteristics

Hepatic:

- Treatment portion of the study:

- Bilirubin less than 2 times normal

- AST less than 3 times normal

- ALT less than 6 times normal

Renal:

- Treatment portion of the study:

- Creatinine less than 2 times normal

Cardiovascular:

- No clinically significant cardiovascular disease

Pulmonary:

- No clinically significant pulmonary disease

Other:

- No clinically significant autoimmune disease

- No documented infection that is active and/or not responding to therapy

- HIV negative

- Not pregnant or nursing

- Negative pregnancy test

- Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

- See Disease Characteristics

- Tumor cell collection portion of the study:

- At least 3 days since prior immunotherapy

- Treatment portion of the study:

- Prior allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation allowed

- No immunotherapy for at least 3 weeks before and during study vaccination

- No concurrent hematopoietic growth factors

Chemotherapy:

- Tumor cell collection portion of the study:

- At least 3 days since prior chemotherapy

- Treatment portion of the study:

- No chemotherapy for at least 3 weeks before and during study vaccination

Endocrine therapy:

- Treatment portion of the study:

- No concurrent oral or IV corticosteroids as antiemetics

Radiotherapy:

- Treatment portion of the study:

- No radiotherapy for at least 3 weeks before and during study vaccination

Surgery:

- Not specified

Other:

- Tumor cell collection portion of the study:

- At least 3 days since prior immunosuppressive therapy

- Treatment portion of the study:

- No immunosuppressive therapy for at least 3 weeks before and during study
vaccination

- No concurrent local anesthetic cream (e.g., EMLA)

- Both portions of the study:

- No concurrent therapy on another research protocol