Vaccine Therapy With Tumor Specific Mutated VHL Peptides in Adult Cancer Patients With Renal Cell Carcinoma

Inclusion Criteria

• •Patients must be 18 years of age or older.
• •Histologic diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma.
• •Tumor tissue availability for determination of Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) mutation (paraffin block, or fresh tissue).
• •Patients must carry a VHL mutation in their tumor.
• •Patients must have metastatic disease for which no further chemotherapy or radiation options, which are known to increase survival, are available.
• •Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 to 1.
• •Expected survival more than 3 months.
• •While measurable disease is preferable, it is not a necessity.
• •The patient should not have received chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy or steroids for at least 4 weeks prior to starting vaccination, and should have recovered from all acute toxicities of previous treatment.
• •Patients must understand and sign an informed consent document that explains the neoplastic nature of his/her disease, the procedures to be followed, the experimental nature of the treatment, alternative treatments, and potential risks and toxicities.
• •Any of the following: White blood cells (WBC) less than 2000/mm(3); Platelets less than 100K/mm
• •(3); Creatinine greater than 2.0 mg/dl; Serum Bilirubin greater than 2.0 mg/dl, Serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), or Serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT) greater than 4x normal.
• •Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or active Hepatitis B or C (i.e. detectable Hepatitis B surface (HBS) Antigen or Heteroconjugate (HC) antibodies).
• •Pregnant women or nursing mothers are ineligible. Women with reproductive potential must have negative urine pregnancy test. Women of reproductive potential must use adequate contraception.
• •Patients with active ischemic heart disease (i.e. Class III or IV cardiac disease)-New York Heart Association), a recent history of myocardial infarction (within the last 6 months), history of congestive heart failure, ventricular arrhythmias or other arrhythmias requiring therapy, or any other medical conditions that the principal investigators sees to be unfit for such therapy.
• •History of Central Nervous System (CNS) metastases.
• •Patients with history of autoimmune disease e.g. (autoimmune neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, or hemolytic anemia; systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren syndrome, or scleroderma; myasthenia grave's; Good pasture syndrome; Addison's disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or active Graves' disease).
• •If, in the opinion of the principal or associate investigators, it is not in the best medical interest of the patient to enter this study, the patient will be ineligible.