Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically proven completely resected stage III or IV cutaneous, mucosal, or ocular melanoma Disease free, but at high risk of relapse Must meet 1 of the following criteria: Failed interferon alfa (IFN-A) therapy Ineligible for IFN-A therapy Refused IFN-A therapy HLA-A2.1 positive Availability of tumor tissue for analysis of gp100 antigen staining with antibody HMB-45, and for expression of tyrosinase and MART-1 antigens by immunohistochemistry Tumor cells must be positive for at least 1 antigen

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 18 and over Performance status: ECOG 0 or 1 Life expectancy: Not specified Hematopoietic: WBC at least 3,000/mm3 Granulocyte count at least 1,500/mm3 Hemoglobin at least 9.0 g/dL Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3 No coagulation or bleeding disorders Hepatic: Bilirubin no greater than 2.0 mg/dL SGOT and SGPT no greater than 2.5 times upper limit of normal Renal: Creatinine no greater than 2.0 mg/dL Cardiovascular: No concurrent major medical illness of the cardiovascular system Pulmonary: No concurrent major medical illness of the respiratory system Immunologic: Hepatitis B surface antigen negative and hepatitis C antibody negative HIV negative No history of uveitis or other autoimmune inflammatory eye disease No other active autoimmune disease No known allergic reaction to Montanide ISA-51 Other: No concurrent major systemic infection including pneumonia or sepsis No concurrent major medical illness of the gastrointestinal system Not pregnant or nursing Negative pregnancy test No other malignancy within the past 5 years except curatively treated squamous cell skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix allowed 30 days after treatment

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: See Disease Characteristics No prior tyrosinase:368-376 peptide, gp100:209-217 antigen, or MART-1:26-35 antigen Chemotherapy: Not specified Endocrine therapy: No concurrent steroids Radiotherapy: At least 1 month since prior radiotherapy No concurrent radiotherapy Surgery: See Disease Characteristics Other: At least 1 month since other prior therapy, including adjuvant therapy, for melanoma No other concurrent anticancer therapy