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

Inclusion Criteria

• •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