Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage IIB, Stage IIC, Stage III, or Stage IV Melanoma

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Histologically confirmed malignant melanoma

  * Stage IIB, IIC, III, or IV disease

    * Patients with stage III or IV disease who are free of disease after surgical resection\* are eligible
* Patients free of disease after surgical resection\* must have refused high-dose interferon alfa OR experienced recurrent disease during prior treatment with interferon alfa NOTE: \*Patients who underwent surgical resection must have had the surgery within the past year
* HLA-A0201 positive
* No detectable brain metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

* Any age

Performance status

* Karnofsky 80-100%

Life expectancy

* Not specified

Hematopoietic

* WBC ≥ 3,000/mm\^3
* Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,500/mm\^3
* Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm\^3
* Hemoglobin ≥ 10 g/dL
* No active bleeding

Hepatic

* Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
* Albumin ≥ 3.5 g/dL
* AST and ALT ≤ 2.5 times ULN
* Lactate dehydrogenase ≤ 2 times ULN
* No clinical history of hepatitis B or C

Renal

* Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL

Immunologic

* No clinical history of HIV
* No clinical history of HTLV-1
* No active infection requiring antibiotics within the past 72 hours
* No history of collagen vascular, rheumatologic, or other autoimmune disorder
* No grade 1 fever within the past 72 hours

Other

* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception
* Weight ≥ 25 kg
* No serious underlying medical condition that would preclude study participation
* No preexisting uveal or choroidal eye disease

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

* See Disease Characteristics
* More than 4 weeks since prior immunotherapy
* No prior immunization with any class of vaccine containing gp100, including whole cell, shed antigen, or cell lysate vaccines

Chemotherapy

* More than 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas)

Endocrine therapy

* No concurrent corticosteroids that would preclude study participation

Radiotherapy

* More than 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy
* No concurrent radiotherapy

Surgery

* See Disease Characteristics

Other

* Recovered from all prior therapy
* No other concurrent medication that would preclude study participation
* No other concurrent investigational agents
* No other concurrent systemic therapy