RATIONALE: Vaccines may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells.

PURPOSE: This phase I trial to studying the side effects of vaccine therapy in treating patients with ovarian epithelial, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the safety of NY-ESO-1b peptide vaccine and Montanide ISA-51 in patients with ovarian epithelial, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer expressing NY-ESO-1 or LAGE-1.
• Determine the immunologic profile (NY-ESO-1 antibody, CD8+ cells, and delayed-type hypersensitivity) induced by this regimen in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is an open-label study.

Patients receive NY-ESO-1b peptide vaccine emulsified with Montanide ISA-51 subcutaneously once every 3 weeks on weeks 1, 4, 7, 10, and 13 in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients are followed at 3 weeks and then every 6-12 weeks for 2 years or until disease progression.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 9 patients will be accrued for this study.

• Fallopian Tube Cancer
• Ovarian Cancer
• Peritoneal Cavity Cancer

• Biological: NY-ESO-1 peptide vaccine
• Biological: incomplete Freund's adjuvant

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed ovarian epithelial, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer

  • Stage II-IV at diagnosis
• Previously treated with cytoreductive surgery and at least 1 platinum-based chemotherapy regimen

• High-risk feature, defined as 1 of the following:

  • Suboptimal primary debulking (remaining tumor masses with diameter at least 1.0 cm)
  • Failure to normalize CA 125 during primary therapy by the end of the third course

• Complete clinical remission, defined as all of the following:

  • CA 125 less than 35 units
  • Negative physical examination
  • No definite evidence of disease by CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis* NOTE: *Lymph nodes and/or soft tissue abnormalities in the pelvis, no greater than 1.0 cm, are not considered definite evidence of disease
• HLA-A2 positive

• Tumor expression of 1 of the following proteins:

  • NY-ESO-1 by reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis or immunohistochemistry
  • LAGE-1 by RT-PCR
• No more than 4 months since prior primary therapy
• No CNS metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 18 and over

Performance status

• Karnofsky 60-100%

Life expectancy

• At least 6 months

Hematopoietic

• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,000/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 80,000/mm^3
• No bleeding disorders

Hepatic

• Bilirubin less than 2.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• ALT and AST less than 2.5 times ULN

Renal

• Creatinine no greater than 1.5 mg/dL

Cardiovascular

• No New York Heart Association class III or IV heart disease

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• HIV negative
• No serious infections requiring antibiotics
• No serious concurrent illness requiring hospitalization
• No other malignancy within the past 3 years except treated nonmelanoma skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix
• No mental impairment that would preclude giving informed consent or complying with study requirements

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• Not specified

Chemotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

• Concurrent tamoxifen is allowed
• No concurrent systemic corticosteroids

Radiotherapy

• Not specified

Surgery

• See Disease Characteristics

Other

• More than 4 weeks since prior participation in any other investigational study
• Concurrent non-cytotoxic anticancer therapy allowed
• No concurrent immunosuppressive drugs
• No concurrent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs except as low dose for the prevention of acute cardiovascular events or for pain control