Vaccine Therapy With or Without Sargramostim in Treating Patients With Stage IIB, Stage IIC, Stage III, or Stage IV Melanoma

Inclusion Criteria

• •DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Diagnosis of melanoma
• •* Stage IIB, IIC, III, or IV disease
• •Must express HLA-A1, -A2, or -A3
• •No ocular melanoma
• •PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Age
• •12 and over
• •Performance status
• •ECOG 0-1
• •Life expectancy
• •Not specified
• •Hematopoietic
• •Absolute neutrophil count \> 1,000/mm\^3
• •Platelet count \> 100,000/mm\^3
• •Hemoglobin \> 9 g/dL
• •Hepatic
• •Liver function tests ≤ 2.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• •Renal
• •Creatinine ≤ 1.5 times ULN
• •Cardiovascular
• •No New York Heart Association class III or IV heart disease
• •Other
• •Not pregnant or nursing
• •No other malignancy within the past 5 years except basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer without brain metastasis, carcinoma in situ of the breast, or carcinoma in situ of the cervix
• •PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• •Biologic therapy
• •More than 4 weeks since prior immunotherapy
• •More than 4 weeks since prior growth factors
• •More than 4 weeks since prior allergy shots
• •No prior vaccine therapy for melanoma or any other cancer with any of the peptides used in this study
• •More than 12 weeks since prior melanoma vaccine therapy\* NOTE: \*Prior melanoma vaccine allowed only for patients with disease progression during or after administration of the vaccine
• •Chemotherapy
• •More than 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy
• •Endocrine therapy
• •More than 4 weeks since prior steroids
• •Radiotherapy
• •More than 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy
• •Surgery
• •Not specified