Vaccine Therapy and GM-CSF in Treating Patients With Recurrent or Metastatic Melanoma

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Diagnosis of melanoma
• * Regionally recurrent or distant metastatic disease
• Must have an established continuously proliferating cell line expanded to about 200 million cells that is free of stromal cells and contamination
• No active CNS metastases
• * Prior treatment for brain metastases or spinal cord compression allowed
• * No clear evidence of disease progression in the CNS
• * No concurrent pharmacologic doses of corticosteroids
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Karnofsky performance status (PS) 70-100% OR ECOG PS 0-1
• Platelet count \> 100,000/mm³
• Hematocrit \> 30%
• Creatinine \< 2.0 mg/dL
• Bilirubin \< 2.0 mg/dL
• Albumin \> 3.0 mg/dL
• No significant hepatic or renal dysfunction
• No other invasive cancer within the past 5 years
• No active infection or other active medical condition that could be eminently life threatening, including any of the following:
• * Active blood clotting
• * Bleeding diathesis
• No ongoing transfusion requirement
• No underlying cardiac disease associated with known myocardial dysfunction
• No unstable angina related to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
• No known autoimmune disease
• Negative pregnancy test
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Prior surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, biological therapy (including sargramostim \[GM-CSF\]), or vaccine therapy allowed
• No concurrent anticancer therapy (e.g., hormone therapy for prostate or breast cancer)
• No concurrent digoxin or other medications for the treatment of heart failure
• No concurrent immunosuppressive therapy