Vaccine Therapy With or Without Interleukin-2 After Chemotherapy and an Autologous White Blood Cell Infusion in Treating Patients With Metastatic Melanoma

You may be eligible if

• Diagnosis of metastatic melanoma
• * No tumor reactive cells available for cell transfer therapy
• Measurable disease
• Previously treated with interleukin-2 (IL-2) and meets 1 of the following criteria:
• * No response (progressive disease)
• * Recurrent disease
• HLA\*0201 positive
• ECOG performance status 0 or 1
• Absolute neutrophil count \> 1,000/mm\^3
• Platelet count \> 100,000/mm\^3
• Hemoglobin \> 8.0 g/dL
• ALT and AST \< 3 times upper limit of normal
• Bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dL (\< 3.0 mg/dL if Gilbert's disease is present)
• Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL
• Life expectancy ≥ 3 months
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for up to 4 months after receiving the preparative regimen
• No active systemic infections, coagulation disorders, or other major medical illnesses of the cardiovascular, respiratory, or immune system, as evidenced by a positive stress thallium or comparable test, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmias, or obstructive or restrictive pulmonary disease
• No autoimmune disease (e.g., autoimmune colitis or Crohn's disease) or primary immunodeficiency disease
• No HIV positivity
• No hepatitis B or C virus positivity
• No Epstein-Barr virus negativity
• Eligible to receive high-dose IL-2, as evidenced by the following:
• * Patients ≥ 50 years of age must have a normal cardiac stress test (e.g., stress thallium, stress MUGA, dobutamine echocardiogram, or other stress test) AND LVEF ≥ 45%
• * Patients with a history of EKG abnormalities, symptoms of cardiac ischemia, or arrhythmias must have a normal cardiac stress test AND LVEF ≥ 45%
• * Patients with a prolonged history of cigarette smoking or symptoms of respiratory dysfunction must have a normal pulmonary function test, as evidenced by FEV 1 ≥ 60% of predicted
• At least 4 weeks since prior systemic therapy
• At least 6 weeks since prior nitrosourea therapy
• No concurrent systemic steroid therapy
• Recovered immune competence after prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy
• No prior gp100:209-217 or MART-1:27-35 peptide vaccine