Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients Who Have Stage II, Stage III, or Stage IV Melanoma

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the safety and the maximum tolerated dose of vaccines containing two adenoviral vectors encoding the melanoma antigens Melan-A/MART-1 and gp100 in patients with stage II-IV melanoma. II. Assess the dose-response changes in the frequency of MART-1 and gp100 reactive T cells (CD4+ and CD8+) in patients receiving one of three different vaccine regimens. III. Assess the T-cell response to one melanoma antigen following three treatments with the other antigen in these patients. IV. Assess the effect of concomitant vaccination with both antigens on T-cell response in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a dose escalation study. Patients are sequentially enrolled on 1 of 3 treatment arms. Each treatment arm has 3 groups. Arm I: Patients receive Ad2/MART-1v2 vaccine and Ad2/gp100v2 vaccine intradermally (ID) at the lowest dose level once every three weeks for either 6 or 15 weeks depending on assignment. Arm II: Patients receive Ad2/gp100v2 vaccine and Ad2/MART-1v2 vaccine ID at the mid-range dose level once every three weeks for either 6 or 15 weeks depending on assignment. Arm III: Patients receive Ad2/MART-1v2 vaccine and Ad2/gp100v2 vaccine ID at the highest dose level once every three weeks for either 6 or 15 weeks depending on assignment. Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of Ad2/MART-1v2 and/or Ad2/gp100v2 vaccines in each arm until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is reached. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 6 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity. Patients are followed at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year after completion of treatment. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 24-36 patients will be accrued over 1 year.