Primary Outcome Measures:

• Safety and immunogenicity [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]

• Immune response as measured by T-cell proliferative response, delayed-type hypersensitivity against WT-1 peptides, or ELISPOT [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Cytologically or histologically confirmed diagnosis of 1 of the following:

  • Acute myeloid leukemia, meeting the following criteria:

    • Documented Wilms tumor-1 (WT-1)-positive disease demonstrated by WT-1 protein on a pretreatment bone marrow biopsy OR detectable disease with real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR)

    • Completed induction chemotherapy, achieved clinical remission, and completed postremission therapy OR achieved clinical remission and have no plans for further postremission chemotherapy (≥ 65 years of age)

  • Myelodysplastic syndromes, meeting the following criteria:

    • Documented WT-1-positive disease demonstrated by WT-1 protein on a pretreatment bone marrow biopsy OR detectable disease by RQ-PCR

    • International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) score of ≥ Int-2

    • Not a candidate for cytotoxic chemotherapy

  • Non-small cell lung cancer, meeting the following criteria:

    • Positive tumor staining for WT-1 in > 10% of cells

    • Stage III or IV disease

    • Completed chemotherapy, surgery, and/or radiotherapy

  • Mesothelioma, meeting the following criteria:

    • Positive tumor staining for WT-1 in > 10% of cells

    • Unresectable or relapsed disease

    • Chemo-naive or received 1 prior chemotherapy regimen

    • Malignant pleural mesothelioma or peritoneal mesothelioma

• No leptomeningeal disease

• No CNS involvement

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Karnofsky performance status 70-100%

• Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,000/mm³

• Platelet count > 50,000/mm³ (except for myelodysplastic syndromes where parameter is > 20,000/mm³ and not transfusion dependent)

• Bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dL

• AST and ALT ≤ 2.5 times upper limit of normal

• Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL

• Not pregnant or nursing

• Negative pregnancy test

• Fertile patients must use effective contraception

• No active infection requiring systemic antibiotics, antiviral, or antifungal treatments

• No serious unstable medical illness

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics

• At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy

• No concurrent systemic corticosteroids