Booster Vaccination in Preventing Disease Recurrence in Previously Vaccinated Patients With Melanoma That Has Been Removed By Surgery

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients must have completed treatment on protocol 99-9 [T98-0081] "A Randomized Phase II Trial to Determine the Immune Response to a Mutated gp100 Melanoma Peptide Vaccine in HLA-A2.1+ Patients with a > 1mm Melanoma on Initial Biopsy;" patients are not required to have received every planned vaccine as long as the reason for stopping was not disease progression or dose limiting toxicity
Patients must be >= 12 months from their last vaccination with gp100 and be free of melanoma; patients who have remained continuously free of disease and patients who have had a recurrence that has been completely resected (stage IV no evidence of disease [NED]) are eligible
Patients must have a good performance status (Karnofsky performance status [PS] 80-100)
White blood cells (WBC) >= 3500/mm^3
Platelets (plt) >= 100,000/mm^3
Hemoglobin >= 9 gm/100 ml
Serum creatinine =< 2 mg/dl
Total bilirubin =< 2.0 mg/dl
Patients must have recovered from any effects of major surgery and be free of significant systemic infection
Women of childbearing potential must have a negative pregnancy test and must avoid becoming pregnant while on treatment; men must avoid fathering a child while on treatment
Patients must give written informed consent prior to initiation of therapy
Patients with a history of psychiatric illness must be judged able to fully understand the investigational nature of the study and the risks associated with the therapy

Exclusion Criteria:

Patients must not have clinically detectable melanoma
Patients who require or are likely to require systemic corticosteroids for intercurrent illness are ineligible
Patients with any significant medical disease other than the melanoma, which in the opinion of the investigator would significantly increase the risk of immunotherapy, are ineligible
Patients should be free of any other cancers or deemed at low risk for their recurrence