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