CP-675,206 (CTLA4-Blocking Monoclonal Antibody) Combined With Dendritic Cell Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma That Cannot Be Removed With Surgery

Inclusion Criteria:

* Histologically confirmed cutaneous or mucosal melanoma, meeting criteria for 1 of the following:
* Unresectable stage III disease (locally relapsed unresectable, in-transit lesions, or unresectable draining nodes)
* Stage IV disease, metastatic to 1 of the following sites:

  * Skin, subcutaneous tissues, or distant lymph nodes
  * Lung
  * Other visceral sites with lactic dehydrogenase ≤ 2 times upper limit of normal (unless due to liver stasis)
* De novo metastatic disease allowed provided patient refused any standard or approved stage-appropriate therapy for melanoma
* Measurable disease
* HLA-A2.1 positive (HLA-A\*0201 by molecular subtyping)
* MART-1-expressing tumor by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or immunohistochemistry
* No symptomatic brain metastases and/or progression of CNS metastases within the past 4 weeks
* Age 18 and over
* Performance status ECOG 0-1 OR
* Karnofsky 70-100%
* HIV negative
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective barrier contraception during and for 3 months after study participation
* More than 30 days since prior immunotherapy for metastatic, relapsed, or primary melanoma
* More than 30 days since prior chemotherapy for metastatic, relapsed, or primary melanoma
* More than 4 weeks since prior corticosteroids
* More than 30 days since prior radiotherapy for metastatic, relapsed, or primary melanoma
* More than 30 days since prior surgery for metastatic, relapsed, or primary melanoma.
* More than 30 days since other prior therapy for metastatic, relapsed, or primary melanoma
* More than 14 days since prior anti-infective therapy
* More than 4 weeks since prior immune suppressive therapy (e.g., cyclosporine)

Exclusion Criteria:

* chronic hepatitis B or C
* asthma
* inflammatory bowel disease
* celiac disease
* history of chronic colitis or other chronic gastrointestinal conditions associated with diarrhea or bleeding
* active chronic inflammatory or autoimmune disease, including any of the following:
* Psoriasis
* Rheumatoid arthritis
* Multiple sclerosis
* Hashimoto's thyroiditis
* Addison's disease
* Graves' disease
* Systemic lupus erythematosus
* active infection OR fever over 100° F within the past 3 days
* allergy to study drugs
* pregnant
* symptomatic seizures
* other medical problem that would preclude study participation
* prior melanoma immunotherapy containing MART-1 antigen
* prior anti-T-cell therapy
* prior anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 monoclonal antibody (CP-675,206)
* organ allografts requiring long-term immune suppressive therapy