Vaccination for CML Patients With Persistent Disease on Imatinib Mesylate

Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia

- Chronic phase disease

- Philadelphia chromosome positive disease

- Disease in first complete hematologic response, defined by all of the following:

- Complete normalization of peripheral blood counts with WBC < 10,000/mm^3

- Platelet count < 450,000/mm^3

- No immature cells (e.g., myelocytes, metamyelocytes, or blasts) in the
peripheral blood

- Persistent molecular evidence of disease

- Detectable BCR-ABL transcript by quantitative polymerase chain reaction

- Less than 2 log reduction in peripheral blood or bone marrow BCR-ABL transcripts
levels compared to a standardized baseline

- Must have received imatinib mesylate for > 1 year of which the last 3 months were at
stable dose ≥ 300 mg/day

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- Not pregnant or nursing

- Fertile patients must use effective contraception

- Negative pregnancy test

- No known HIV

- ALT or AST ≤ 3 times upper limit of normal

- Oxygen saturation ≥ 93% at room air

- No history of recent acute myocardial infarction

- No history of unstable angina

- No pulmonary decomposition requiring hospitalization within the past 3 months

- No concurrent and/or uncontrolled psychiatric or medical condition that would
preclude study compliance

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- See Disease Characteristics

- No prior allogeneic stem cell transplantation

- At least 2 months since other prior experimental therapy

- At least 6 months since prior participation in another vaccine study

- No concurrent systemic immunosuppressive medication