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

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Histologically confirmed melanoma meeting the following criteria:

  * Unresectable recurrent disease
  * Stage III or IV disease
  * Cutaneous, ocular, or mucosal melanoma
* Measurable disease as defined by the RECIST criteria
* HLA-A2 positive
* Prior brain metastases allowed provided adequate surgical or radiologic treatment for brain disease

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

* ECOG performance status 0 or 1
* WBC ≥ 3,000/mm³
* Lymphocytes ≥ 1,000/mm³
* Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm³
* Creatinine ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
* Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times ULN
* AST and ALT ≤ 2.5 times ULN
* Lactic dehydrogenase ≤ 2.0 times ULN
* aPTT \< 40 seconds
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception for ≥ 1 week before, during, and for ≥ 2 weeks after completion of study therapy
* No conditions of immunosuppression
* Negative titers for antinuclear antibody (≤ 1/80) and antidouble stranded DNA (≤ 1/10)
* No serious illnesses including, but not limited to, any of the following:

  * Bleeding disorders
  * Autoimmune diseases
  * Severe obstructive or restrictive pulmonary diseases
  * Active systemic infections
  * Inflammatory bowel disorders
* No serious cardiovascular disease including, but not limited to, any of the following:

  * Uncontrolled congestive heart failure
  * Hypertension
  * Cardiac ischemia
  * Myocardial infarction,
  * Severe cardiac arrhythmia
* HIV1 and 2 negative
* HTLV-1 negative
* Hepatitis B and C negative
* No significant psychiatric disease, medical intervention, or other condition that, in the opinion of the principal investigator, would limit study compliance
* No active infection within the past week, including unexplained fever (temperature \> 38.1°C)

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

* Fully recovered from prior major surgery
* More than 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for mitomycin C or nitrosoureas), hormonal therapy, radiotherapy, or biological therapy
* More than 1 week since prior antibiotics
* More than 28 days since prior investigational agent
* No prior vaccination with MART-1 (26-35, 27L), gp100 (209-217, 210M), and tyrosinase (368-376, 370D) peptides alone or in combination

  * Patients with history of vaccination with peptides other than MART-1 (26-35, 27L), gp100 (209-217, 210M), and tyrosinase (368-376, 370D) peptides allowed
* More than 4 weeks since prior and no concurrent systemic immunosuppressive therapy, including steroids

  * Patients on maintenance steroids given at physiologic doses because of adrenal insufficiency are eligible
* More than 2 weeks since prior and no concurrent treatment with systemic steroids, including oral steroids, continuous use of topical steroid creams or ointments, or any inhaled steroids
* No concurrent anticoagulants, except to keep an indwelling line patent
* No other concurrent anticancer therapy, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, experimental programs, and/or surgery