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

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