Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma That Cannot Be Removed With Surgery

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Histologically confirmed cutaneous melanoma

  * Unresectable stage III OR stage IV M1a disease
* Documented progressive disease within the past 12 weeks
* Measurable disease
* Skin, soft tissue, or lymph node metastasis allowed provided the disease is not amenable to curative treatment with surgery
* Tumor must express the MAGE-3 gene by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis (more than 1% of the positive MAGE-3 control included in the assay)
* No visceral metastases within the past 56 days by imaging

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

* 18 and over

Performance status

* ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy

* Not specified

Hematopoietic

* Hemoglobin ≥ lower limit of normal (LLN)
* WBC ≥ LLN
* Lymphocyte count ≥ LLN
* Platelet count ≥ LLN
* No bleeding disorders

Hepatic

* Bilirubin ≤ upper limit of normal (ULN)
* Lactic dehydrogenase ≤ ULN
* AST and ALT ≤ 2 times ULN
* PT and aPTT normal
* Hepatitis B surface antigen negative (antibody test may be positive)
* Hepatitis C antibody negative

Renal

* Creatinine ≤ ULN

Cardiovascular

* No clinically significant heart disease (CTC grade III or IV)

Immunologic

* No autoimmune disease (vitiligo allowed)
* No anti-nuclear antibody titer ≥ 1/320 OR equal to 1/160 AND auto-antibodies directed against specific auto-antigens
* No immunodeficiency
* No active infection requiring antibiotic therapy
* HIV negative

Other

* Not pregnant
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for 3 months after study participation
* No other malignancy within the past 5 years except surgically cured basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix
* No other serious acute or chronic illness requiring concurrent medications
* No psychological, familial, sociological, or geographical condition that would preclude study compliance

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

* More than 8 weeks since prior adjuvant vaccine therapy
* No prior vaccine therapy containing a MAGE-3 antigen
* No prior vaccine therapy for metastatic melanoma
* No concurrent immunomodulating agents (e.g., BCG)

Chemotherapy

* No prior systemic chemotherapy
* No concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

* No concurrent corticosteroids

  * Concurrent prednisone or equivalent allowed provided the dose is ≤ 40 mg/day and treatment duration is for no more than 3 weeks
  * Concurrent inhaled and topical steroids are allowed

Radiotherapy

* No prior radiotherapy to the spleen
* No concurrent radiotherapy to \> 20% of all existing lesions (i.e., target lesions, non-target lesions, and nonmeasurable lesions)

  * Concurrent local low-dose (≤ 20 Grays) radiotherapy allowed

Surgery

* Recovered from prior surgery or biopsy
* No prior organ allograft
* No prior splenectomy
* Concurrent surgery to a limited number of lesions allowed for patients with a complete response, partial response, or stable disease after at least 3 courses of study therapy

Other

* No prior systemic anticancer therapy
* More than 4 weeks since prior isolated limb perfusion therapy
* No other concurrent anticancer therapy
* No other concurrent immunosuppressive agents