Vaccine Therapy With or Without Interleukin-2 After Chemotherapy and an Autologous White Blood Cell Infusion in Treating Patients With Metastatic Melanoma

Inclusion Criteria:

Diagnosis of metastatic melanoma

No tumor reactive cells available for cell transfer therapy
Measurable disease

Previously treated with interleukin-2 (IL-2) and meets 1 of the following criteria:

No response (progressive disease)
Recurrent disease
HLA*0201 positive
ECOG performance status 0 or 1
Absolute neutrophil count > 1,000/mm^3
Platelet count > 100,000/mm^3
Hemoglobin > 8.0 g/dL
ALT and AST < 3 times upper limit of normal
Bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dL (< 3.0 mg/dL if Gilbert's disease is present)
Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL
Life expectancy ≥ 3 months
Not pregnant or nursing
Negative pregnancy test
Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for up to 4 months after receiving the preparative regimen
No active systemic infections, coagulation disorders, or other major medical illnesses of the cardiovascular, respiratory, or immune system, as evidenced by a positive stress thallium or comparable test, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmias, or obstructive or restrictive pulmonary disease
No autoimmune disease (e.g., autoimmune colitis or Crohn's disease) or primary immunodeficiency disease
No HIV positivity
No hepatitis B or C virus positivity
No Epstein-Barr virus negativity

Eligible to receive high-dose IL-2, as evidenced by the following:

Patients ≥ 50 years of age must have a normal cardiac stress test (e.g., stress thallium, stress MUGA, dobutamine echocardiogram, or other stress test) AND LVEF ≥ 45%
Patients with a history of EKG abnormalities, symptoms of cardiac ischemia, or arrhythmias must have a normal cardiac stress test AND LVEF ≥ 45%
Patients with a prolonged history of cigarette smoking or symptoms of respiratory dysfunction must have a normal pulmonary function test, as evidenced by FEV 1 ≥ 60% of predicted
At least 4 weeks since prior systemic therapy
At least 6 weeks since prior nitrosourea therapy
No concurrent systemic steroid therapy
Recovered immune competence after prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy
No prior gp100:209-217 or MART-1:27-35 peptide vaccine