Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a patient's dendritic cells and tumor cells may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best dose of vaccine therapy in treating patients with stage III or stage IV melanoma.

OBJECTIVES: Primary * Determine the dose-limiting toxicity and the maximum tolerated dose of autologous dendritic cells pulsed with autologous tumor cell lysate in patients with stage III or IV melanoma. * Determine the safety and tolerability of this therapy in these patients. Secondary * Determine the immune response, in terms of the type and degree of T-cell proliferation and delayed-type hypersensitivity responses, in patients treated with this therapy. OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation, pilot study. Patients undergo leukapheresis for the collection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) on days -9, 19, and 47. Autologous dendritic cells (DC) are prepared from autologous PBMC exposed to sargramostim (GM-CSF), interleukin-4, and tumor necrosis factor alpha and pulsed with autologous tumor cell lysate. Patients receive autologous tumor cell lysate-pulsed DC IV over 5-10 minutes on days 0, 28, and 56. Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of autologous tumor cell lysate-pulsed DC until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose at which 33% of all patients experience dose-limiting toxicity. Patients are followed at day 84 and then every 3 months thereafter. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 3-20 patients will be accrued for this study within 3-20 months.