Vaccine Plus Interleukin-2 in Treating Patients With Advanced Melanoma

Inclusion Criteria:

Histologically or cytologically confirmed cutaneous melanoma with clinical evidence of distant, metastatic, unresectable regional lymphatic, or extensive in-transit recurrent disease
HLA-A2*0201 positive by genotyping

Measurable disease as defined by the following:

At least 1 lesion accurately measured in at least 1 dimension
At least 20 mm by conventional techniques
At least 10 mm by spiral CT scan

Lesions considered intrinsically nonmeasurable include:

Bone lesions
Leptomeningeal disease
Ascites
Pleural/pericardial effusion
Inflammatory breast disease
Lymphangitis cutis/pulmonis
Abdominal masses not confirmed and followed by imaging techniques
Cystic lesions
Lesions situated in a previously irradiated area
No ocular or mucosal melanoma
No prior or concurrent liver or brain metastases
Performance status - ECOG 0-1
Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3
Hemoglobin at least 10 g/dL
LDH normal
Bilirubin normal
AST no greater than 2.5 times upper limit of normal
Creatinine normal
No congestive heart failure, angina, or symptomatic cardiac arrhythmia
No myocardial infarction within the past 6 months
No severe chronic pulmonary disease
Not pregnant or nursing
Fertile patients must use effective contraception
No primary or secondary immunodeficiency or autoimmune disease
No currently active second malignancy (e.g., patient has completed therapy and is considered unlikely to have recurrence within 1 year) other than nonmelanoma skin cancer
At least 4 weeks since prior immunotherapy
No prior interleukin-2
No prior whole cell or gp100:209-217(210M)-targeted melanoma vaccine
No other concurrent cytokines or growth factors
At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy
At least 1 month since prior systemic corticosteroids
No concurrent systemic, inhaled, or topical corticosteroids
At least 1 month since other prior immunosuppressive medication
No antihypertensive medications from 1 day prior until 2 days after first course