LMB-2 Immunotoxin and Vaccine Therapy in Treating Patients With Metastatic Melanoma That Cannot Be Removed By Surgery

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Diagnosis of metastatic melanoma

  * Unresectable disease
  * Progressive disease while receiving standard therapy (e.g., interleukin-2 or dacarbazine)
* HLA-A0201 positive
* Measurable disease
* The following are not allowed:

  * Resectable local/regional disease
  * Patients whose serum neutralizes LMB-2 in tissue culture, due either to antitoxin or antimouse-immunoglobulin G antibodies (\> 75% of the activity of 1 ug/mL of LMB-2)
  * Received LMB-2 on another trial

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

* ECOG performance status 0-2
* Life expectancy more than 3 months
* WBC ≥ 3,000/mm\^3
* Absolute lymphocyte count \> 500/mm\^3
* Platelet count ≥ 90,000/mm\^3
* Bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dL (≤ 3.0 mg/dL for patients with Gilbert's syndrome)
* AST and ALT ≤ 2.5 times normal
* Albumin ≥ 3.0 g/dL
* No hepatitis B surface antigen or hepatitis C positivity
* Creatinine ≤ 1.4 mg/dL
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception
* No ongoing or active infection
* Ejection fraction ≥ 45% by echocardiogram or thallium stress test (for patients \> 50 years of age OR who have a history of cardiovascular disease)
* LVEF ≥ 45%
* No symptomatic congestive heart failure
* No unstable angina pectoris
* No cardiac arrhythmia
* No psychiatric illness or social situation that would preclude study compliance
* No other uncontrolled illness
* No known HIV positivity
* No autoimmune disease
* No immunodeficiency
* No other malignancies
* Must be willing to undergo leukapheresis

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

* See Disease Characteristics
* More than 12 weeks since prior monoclonal antibody therapy
* More than 3 weeks since prior and no concurrent systemic therapy for cancer
* No concurrent chronic anticoagulant therapy
* No concurrent systemic steroid therapy