A Pilot Study of Active Immunotherapy With Carcinoembryonic Antigen Peptide-Pulsed, Autologous Human Cultured Dendritic Cells in Patients With Resected, Stage I, II and III Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Expressing Carcinoembryonic Antigen

I. Perform a pilot study of active immunotherapy with autologous dendritic cells pulsed with the CEA peptide, CAP-1, after surgical resection in patients with CEA expressing pancreatic cancer. II. Perform laboratory analysis to monitor the presence, persistence, and function of CAP-1 specific T-cells in this patient population.

Outline: Patients undergo leukapheresis for up to 4.5 hours prior to vaccination. Half of the collected dendritic cells are pulsed with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) peptide and the other half are pulsed with hepatitis B antigen peptide (HBsAg). Equal doses of CEA and HBsAg peptide pulsed dendritic cells are administered intravenously over 3 minutes every 4 weeks for a total of 6 doses each. Patients undergo a second leukopheresis 2 weeks after the last dose of immunotherapy to obtain specimens for immunologic tests. Patients are followed at weeks 22, 36, 48, and every 6 months thereafter.

Project Accrual: A total of 24 patients will be accrued for this study over 2 years.