Temsirolimus and Bevacizumab in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Malignant Melanoma

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the objective tumor response rate (complete response and partial response) in patients with stage III or IV melanoma treated with temsirolimus and bevacizumab. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. Describe the adverse event profile of this regimen in these patients. II. Determine the efficacy of this regimen, in terms of progression-free survival, in these patients. III. Compare pre- vs post-treatment measurements of biomarkers and vascular system/immune system parameters in patients treated with this regimen. IV. Correlate tumor and blood biomarkers with clinical response in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients receive temsirolimus intravenously (IV) over 30 minutes on days 1 and 8 and bevacizumab IV over 30-90 minutes on day 8. Treatment repeats every 14 days for a maximum of 26 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients undergo tumor resection on day 9 of course 2.Blood samples are collected during courses 1 and 2. Samples are examined by flow cytometry to evaluate peripheral blood mononuclear cells for molecular effects of study agents. Patients also undergo normal and tumor tissue biopsy (by core needle biopsy, incisional biopsy, or surgical resection) during courses 1 and 2. Samples are examined by immunohistochemistry, western blotting, protein array technology, gene expression analyses, DNA mutation analyses, and genomic analyses for pre-and post-treatment measurements of target molecules (epidermal growth factor receptor, B-Raf, MEK, MAPK), downstream pathway components (PI-3 kinase, AKT, mTOR), markers of angiogenesis, proliferation and apoptosis, markers that may modulate cell signaling or the response to investigational agents, and vascular and immune system parameters. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed at 1 month, every 3 months for up to 2 years, and then periodically for up to 5 years.