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

Inclusion Criteria

• •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