Vaccine Therapy Followed by Biological Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

Histologically confirmed metastatic melanoma

Measurable disease after attempted curative surgery
Unresectable stage III or IV uveal melanoma
Metastatic mucosal melanoma
HLA-A2.1 positive
No disease progression following high dose interleukin-2 (600,000 or 720,000 IU/kg every 8 hours)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

18 and over

Performance status:

ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy:

Not specified

Hematopoietic:

WBC at least 3,000/mm^3
Platelet count at least 75,000/mm^3
Hemoglobin at least 9.0 g/dL
No coagulation disorders

Hepatic:

Bilirubin no greater than 2.0 mg/dL

Renal:

Creatinine no greater than 2.0 mg/dL

Cardiovascular:

No myocardial infarction within the past 6 months
Patients with documented or suspected coronary artery disease must undergo stress thallium test
No major cardiovascular illness

Pulmonary:

No major pulmonary illness

Immunologic:

HIV negative
Hepatitis B surface antigen negative
Hepatitis C antibody negative
No history of uveitis or autoimmune inflammatory eye disease

Other:

Not pregnant or nursing
Negative pregnancy test
Fertile patients must use effective contraception
No major systemic infection
No other malignancy within the past 5 years except curatively treated carcinoma in situ of the cervix or basal cell skin cancer

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

See Disease Characteristics
No prior MART-1:26-35, gp100:209-217, or tyrosinase:368-376 antigens

Chemotherapy:

At least 1 month since prior chemotherapy for melanoma

Endocrine therapy:

No concurrent steroid therapy

Radiotherapy:

At least 1 month since prior radiotherapy for melanoma

Surgery:

See Disease Characteristics

Other:

At least 1 month since prior adjuvant therapy for melanoma
At least 1 month since other prior therapy for melanoma