DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of stage IIB, IIC, III, or IV cutaneous melanoma OR stage III or IV ocular or mucosal melanoma

  • Resected or rendered disease-free
• HLA-A2.1-positive by standard cytotoxicity assay

• Tumor tissue must be available for analysis of gp100 staining and tyrosinase and MART-1 expression by immunohistochemistry

  • Must be positive for at least 1 antigen
• Failed, ineligible for, or refused prior interferon alfa

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• WBC at least 3,000/mm^3
• Granulocyte count at least 1,500/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin at least 9.0 g/dL
• No bleeding disorder

Hepatic:

• Bilirubin no greater than 2.0 mg/dL
• SGOT/SGPT no greater than 2.5 times normal
• No coagulation disorder
• Hepatitis surface antigen B negative
• Hepatitis C negative

Renal:

• Creatinine no greater than 2.0 mg/dL

Cardiovascular:

• No major cardiovascular illness

Pulmonary:

• No major respiratory illness

Immunologic:

• No prior uveitis
• No prior autoimmune inflammatory eye disease
• No immune hemolytic anemia
• No other active autoimmune disease

Other:

• HIV negative
• No major gastrointestinal illness
• No other malignancy within the past 5 years except squamous cell skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix curatively treated at least 30 days ago
• No major systemic infection (e.g., pneumonia or sepsis)
• No other major medical illness
• No prior allergic reaction to Montanide ISA-51 or alum adjuvant
• No requirement for steroid therapy
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior tyrosinase:368-376 (370D), gp100:209-217 (210M), or MART-1:26-35 (27L) peptides

Chemotherapy:

• At least 1 month since prior adjuvant chemotherapy for this disease
• No concurrent adjuvant chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

• No concurrent steroids

Radiotherapy:

• At least 1 month since prior radiotherapy for this disease
• No concurrent radiotherapy

Surgery:

• See Disease Characteristics

Other:

• At least 1 month since other prior therapy, including adjuvant therapy, for this disease
• No other concurrent therapy, including adjuvant therapy