Vaccine Therapy and Interleukin-12 With Either Alum or Sargramostim After Surgery in Treating Patients With Melanoma

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

Diagnosis of stage IIB, IIC, III, or IV cutaneous melanoma OR stage III or IV ocular or mucosal melanoma

Resected or rendered disease-free
HLA-A2.1-positive by standard cytotoxicity assay

Tumor tissue must be available for analysis of gp100 staining and tyrosinase and MART-1 expression by immunohistochemistry

Must be positive for at least 1 antigen
Failed, ineligible for, or refused prior interferon alfa

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

18 and over

Performance status:

ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy:

Not specified

Hematopoietic:

WBC at least 3,000/mm^3
Granulocyte count at least 1,500/mm^3
Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3
Hemoglobin at least 9.0 g/dL
No bleeding disorder

Hepatic:

Bilirubin no greater than 2.0 mg/dL
SGOT/SGPT no greater than 2.5 times normal
No coagulation disorder
Hepatitis surface antigen B negative
Hepatitis C negative

Renal:

Creatinine no greater than 2.0 mg/dL

Cardiovascular:

No major cardiovascular illness

Pulmonary:

No major respiratory illness

Immunologic:

No prior uveitis
No prior autoimmune inflammatory eye disease
No immune hemolytic anemia
No other active autoimmune disease

Other:

HIV negative
No major gastrointestinal illness
No other malignancy within the past 5 years except squamous cell skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix curatively treated at least 30 days ago
No major systemic infection (e.g., pneumonia or sepsis)
No other major medical illness
No prior allergic reaction to Montanide ISA-51 or alum adjuvant
No requirement for steroid therapy
Not pregnant or nursing
Negative pregnancy test
Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

See Disease Characteristics
No prior tyrosinase:368-376 (370D), gp100:209-217 (210M), or MART-1:26-35 (27L) peptides

Chemotherapy:

At least 1 month since prior adjuvant chemotherapy for this disease
No concurrent adjuvant chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

No concurrent steroids

Radiotherapy:

At least 1 month since prior radiotherapy for this disease
No concurrent radiotherapy

Surgery:

See Disease Characteristics

Other:

At least 1 month since other prior therapy, including adjuvant therapy, for this disease
No other concurrent therapy, including adjuvant therapy