• Humoral and cellular immune response [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Safety [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
• Toxicity [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
• Changes in quantitative bcl-2 levels [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

• Humoral and cellular immune response
• Safety
• Toxicity
• Changes in quantitative bcl-2 levels

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a person's cancer cells may make the body build an immune response to kill cancer cells. Vaccine therapy may be an effective treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of vaccine therapy following chemotherapy and peripheral stem cell transplantation in treating patients who have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the humoral and cellular immune responses in patients with follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma treated with autologous lymphoma-derived idiotype vaccine with keyhole limpet hemocyanin plus sargramostim (GM-CSF).
• Determine the safety and toxicity of this regimen in these patients in the post-transplant setting.
• Determine the changes in quantitative bcl-2 in the blood and bone marrow of these patients before and at various times after the series of idiotype vaccines.

OUTLINE: Vaccinations begin at day 100 or up to 6 months after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Patients receive autologous lymphoma-derived idiotype vaccine plus keyhole limpet hemocyanin subcutaneously (SC) on day 1. Sargramostim (GM-CSF) SC is administered on days 1-4. Treatment repeats every 4 weeks for 4 doses, followed 12 weeks later by the fifth and final dose.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 2 years, and then annually thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 20 patients will be accrued for this study.

• Biological: autologous tumor cell vaccine
• Biological: keyhole limpet hemocyanin
• Biological: sargramostim
• Procedure: adjuvant therapy

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically proven grade I, II, or III follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that failed induction therapy
• Previously received no more than 2 high-dose chemotherapies before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

• Minimal disease state at day 100 to 6 months post-transplantation

  • Lymph nodes smaller than 2 cm
  • Less than 20% bone marrow involvement with lymphoma
  • Uncertain complete remission, defined by greater than 75% reduction in the size of the pre-transplantation mass not representing active disease

• Tissue sample safely accessible by biopsy, needle aspiration, or phlebotomy

  • Must have adequate circulating lymphoma cells

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• Over 19

Performance status:

• Karnofsky greater than 70%

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• See Disease Characteristics
• Absolute neutrophil count greater than 1,000/mm^3*
• CD4+ count greater than 200/microliter* NOTE: *No restrictions if study vaccine administered at 6 months after transplantation

Hepatic:

• Bilirubin less than 2.0 mg/dL (unless due to lymphomatous involvement)
• SGOT and SGPT less than 2 times normal (unless due to lymphomatous involvement)

Renal:

• Creatinine no greater than 2.0 mg/dL

Other:

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for 6 months after study participation

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• See Disease Characteristics

Chemotherapy:

• See Disease Characteristics

Endocrine therapy:

• Not specified

Radiotherapy:

• Not specified

Surgery:

• Not specified