Vaccine Therapy Followed by Biological Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed metastatic melanoma

  • Measurable disease after attempted curative surgery
  • Unresectable stage III or IV uveal melanoma
  • Metastatic mucosal melanoma
• HLA-A2.1 positive
• No disease progression following high dose interleukin-2 (600,000 or 720,000 IU/kg every 8 hours)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• WBC at least 3,000/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 75,000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin at least 9.0 g/dL
• No coagulation disorders

Hepatic:

• Bilirubin no greater than 2.0 mg/dL

Renal:

• Creatinine no greater than 2.0 mg/dL

Cardiovascular:

• No myocardial infarction within the past 6 months
• Patients with documented or suspected coronary artery disease must undergo stress thallium test
• No major cardiovascular illness

Pulmonary:

• No major pulmonary illness

Immunologic:

• HIV negative
• Hepatitis B surface antigen negative
• Hepatitis C antibody negative
• No history of uveitis or autoimmune inflammatory eye disease

Other:

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No major systemic infection
• No other malignancy within the past 5 years except curatively treated carcinoma in situ of the cervix or basal cell skin cancer

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior MART-1:26-35, gp100:209-217, or tyrosinase:368-376 antigens

Chemotherapy:

• At least 1 month since prior chemotherapy for melanoma

Endocrine therapy:

• No concurrent steroid therapy

Radiotherapy:

• At least 1 month since prior radiotherapy for melanoma

Surgery:

• See Disease Characteristics

Other:

• At least 1 month since prior adjuvant therapy for melanoma
• At least 1 month since other prior therapy for melanoma