Vaccine Therapy With or Without Interleukin-2 After Chemotherapy and an Autologous White Blood Cell Infusion in Treating Patients With Metastatic Melanoma

Inclusion Criteria:

* Diagnosis of metastatic melanoma

  * No tumor reactive cells available for cell transfer therapy
* Measurable disease
* Previously treated with interleukin-2 (IL-2) and meets 1 of the following criteria:

  * No response (progressive disease)
  * Recurrent disease
* HLA\*0201 positive
* ECOG performance status 0 or 1
* Absolute neutrophil count \> 1,000/mm\^3
* Platelet count \> 100,000/mm\^3
* Hemoglobin \> 8.0 g/dL
* ALT and AST \< 3 times upper limit of normal
* Bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dL (\< 3.0 mg/dL if Gilbert's disease is present)
* Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL
* Life expectancy ≥ 3 months
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for up to 4 months after receiving the preparative regimen
* No active systemic infections, coagulation disorders, or other major medical illnesses of the cardiovascular, respiratory, or immune system, as evidenced by a positive stress thallium or comparable test, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmias, or obstructive or restrictive pulmonary disease
* No autoimmune disease (e.g., autoimmune colitis or Crohn's disease) or primary immunodeficiency disease
* No HIV positivity
* No hepatitis B or C virus positivity
* No Epstein-Barr virus negativity
* Eligible to receive high-dose IL-2, as evidenced by the following:

  * Patients ≥ 50 years of age must have a normal cardiac stress test (e.g., stress thallium, stress MUGA, dobutamine echocardiogram, or other stress test) AND LVEF ≥ 45%
  * Patients with a history of EKG abnormalities, symptoms of cardiac ischemia, or arrhythmias must have a normal cardiac stress test AND LVEF ≥ 45%
  * Patients with a prolonged history of cigarette smoking or symptoms of respiratory dysfunction must have a normal pulmonary function test, as evidenced by FEV 1 ≥ 60% of predicted
* At least 4 weeks since prior systemic therapy
* At least 6 weeks since prior nitrosourea therapy
* No concurrent systemic steroid therapy
* Recovered immune competence after prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy
* No prior gp100:209-217 or MART-1:27-35 peptide vaccine