Vaccine Therapy Plus Biological Therapy in Treating Adults With Metastatic Solid Tumors

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Histologically confirmed solid tumors potentially expressing mutant ras, including colon, lung, pancreas, thyroid, endometrial, head and neck, testicular, hepatocellular, and melanoma
* Ras mutations must be one of the following point mutations at codon 12:

  * Glycine to cysteine
  * Glycine to aspartic acid
  * Glycine to valine
* Metastatic disease for which no known chemotherapy or radiotherapy would increase survival
* Tumor tissue must be available for determination of ras mutation
* No prior CNS metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

* 18 and over

Performance status:

* ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy:

* More than 3 months

Hematopoietic:

* WBC at least 2,000/mm\^3
* Platelet count at least 100,000/mm\^3

Hepatic:

* Bilirubin no greater than 2.0 mg/dL
* SGOT/SGPT no greater than 4 times normal
* No hepatitis B or C infection

Renal:

* Creatinine no greater than 2.0 mg/dL

Cardiovascular:

* No active ischemic heart disease (New York Heart Association class III or IV)
* No myocardial infarction within the past 6 months
* No history of congestive heart failure, ventricular arrhythmias, or other arrhythmias requiring therapy

Immunologic:

* No prior allergy to eggs
* No prior autoimmune disease, including the following:

  * Autoimmune neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, or hemolytic anemia
  * Systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren's syndrome, or scleroderma
  * Myasthenia gravis
  * Goodpasture syndrome
  * Addison's disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, or active Graves' disease

Other:

* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception
* HIV negative
* No other active malignancy except curatively treated carcinoma in situ of the cervix or basal cell skin cancer
* No active infection requiring antibiotics
* No medical condition that would preclude study

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

* At least 4 weeks since prior immunotherapy and recovered

Chemotherapy:

* See Disease Characteristics
* At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy and recovered

Endocrine therapy:

* At least 4 weeks since prior steroids and recovered

Radiotherapy:

* See Disease Characteristics
* At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy and recovered

Surgery:

* Not specified