Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage IIB, Stage IIC, Stage III, or Stage IV Melanoma

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed malignant melanoma
• Stage IIB, IIC, III, or IV disease
• Patients with stage III or IV disease who are free of disease after surgical resection* are eligible
• Patients free of disease after surgical resection* must have refused high-dose interferon alfa OR experienced recurrent disease during prior treatment with interferon alfa NOTE: *Patients who underwent surgical resection must have had the surgery within the past year
• HLA-A0201 positive
• No detectable brain metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• Any age

Performance status

• Karnofsky 80-100%

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• WBC ≥ 3,000/mm^3
• Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,500/mm^3
• Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin ≥ 10 g/dL
• No active bleeding

Hepatic

• Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• Albumin ≥ 3.5 g/dL
• AST and ALT ≤ 2.5 times ULN
• Lactate dehydrogenase ≤ 2 times ULN
• No clinical history of hepatitis B or C

Renal

• Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL

Immunologic

• No clinical history of HIV
• No clinical history of HTLV-1
• No active infection requiring antibiotics within the past 72 hours
• No history of collagen vascular, rheumatologic, or other autoimmune disorder
• No grade 1 fever within the past 72 hours

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• Weight ≥ 25 kg
• No serious underlying medical condition that would preclude study participation
• No preexisting uveal or choroidal eye disease

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• More than 4 weeks since prior immunotherapy
• No prior immunization with any class of vaccine containing gp100, including whole cell, shed antigen, or cell lysate vaccines

Chemotherapy

• More than 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas)

Endocrine therapy

• No concurrent corticosteroids that would preclude study participation

Radiotherapy

• More than 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy
• No concurrent radiotherapy

Surgery

• See Disease Characteristics

Other

• Recovered from all prior therapy
• No other concurrent medication that would preclude study participation
• No other concurrent investigational agents
• No other concurrent systemic therapy