Vaccine Therapy With or Without Interleukin-2 in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Melanoma

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically confirmed stage III or IV metastatic melanoma Unresectable disease for which no other therapy exists Measurable or evaluable disease by clinical or radiographic evaluation Metastatic tumor tissue expressing both gp100 and MART-1 No uncontrolled or progressive CNS involvement PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 18 and over Performance status: ECOG 0-1 Life expectancy: Not specified Hematopoietic: WBC at least 3,000/mm3 Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3 No clinically significant hematologic disorder Hepatic: Bilirubin less than 2.0 mg/dL No clinically significant hepatic disease Hepatitis B surface antigen negative Renal: Creatinine less than 2.0 mg/dL No clinically significant renal disease Cardiovascular: No clinically significant cardiac disease Other: Not pregnant or nursing Fertile patients must use effective contraception Negative pregnancy test HIV-1 and HIV-2 negative HTLV-1 negative No significant psychiatric disorder that would prevent compliance No underlying condition that would preclude study therapy No autoimmune disease or other major immune system illness No active infection requiring parenteral antibiotic therapy PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: No prior immunotherapy with vaccines directed at MART-1 or gp100 melanoma antigens Prior interleukin-2 or interferon therapy allowed Chemotherapy: At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy and recovered No concurrent chemotherapy Endocrine therapy: Not specified Radiotherapy: At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy and recovered Surgery: At least 4 weeks since prior surgery (except study biopsies) and recovered Other: At least 4 weeks since prior experimental therapy and recovered At least 4 weeks since prior immunosuppressive drugs and recovered No other concurrent experimental therapy or anti-cancer drugs No concurrent immunosuppressive therapy