DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of metastatic melanoma
• HLA-A*0201-positive disease
• Measurable disease
• Refractory to standard therapy, including high-dose aldesleukin therapy

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 18 and over

Performance status

• ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy

• More than 3 months

Hematopoietic

• Absolute neutrophil count > 1,000/mm^3
• Platelet count > 100,000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin > 8.0 g/dL
• Lymphocyte count > 500/mm^3
• WBC > 3,000/mm^3
• No coagulation disorder

Hepatic

• ALT and AST < 3 times upper limit of normal
• Bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dL (< 3.0 mg/dL for patients with Gilbert's disease)
• Hepatitis B antigen negative
• Hepatitis C antibody negative (unless antigen negative)

Renal

• Creatinine ≤ 1.6 mg/dL

Cardiovascular

• No myocardial infarction
• No cardiac arrhythmias
• No cardiac ischemia
• LVEF ≥ 45% by stress cardiac test* (for patients ≥ 50 years of age OR those with a history of EKG abnormalities)
• No other major cardiovascular illness by stress thallium or comparable test NOTE: *Stress thallium, stress MUGA, dobutamine echocardiogram, or other stress test

Pulmonary

• No major respiratory illness
• No obstructive or restrictive pulmonary disease
• FEV_1 ≥ 60% of predicted on pulmonary function test*
• DLCO ≥ 60% predicted (for total-body irradiation cohort) NOTE: *For patients with a prolonged history of cigarette smoking or symptoms of respiratory dysfunction

Immunologic

• HIV negative
• No major immune system illness
• No active systemic infection or opportunistic infection
• No primary immunodeficiency (e.g., autoimmune colitis or Crohn's disease)
• No secondary immunodeficiency (e.g., due to chemotherapy or radiotherapy)
• No history of severe immediate hypersensitivity reaction to study drugs

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for 4 months after completion of study treatment
• Must sign a durable power of attorney

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• Recovered from prior immunotherapy

• Prior immunization to melanoma antigens allowed

  • Progressive disease during prior immunization allowed
• Prior cellular therapy, including vector transduction with or without myeloablation, allowed
• More than 6 weeks since prior anticytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) monoclonal antibody (MDX-010) therapy
• No prior anti-CTLA-4 antibody unless a post anti-CTLA-4 antibody treatment colonoscopy was normal by biopsy

Chemotherapy

• Recovered from prior chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

• No concurrent systemic steroids

Radiotherapy

• Recovered from prior radiotherapy
• No prior significant mediastinal or lung radiation (for total-body irradiation cohort)

Surgery

• Not specified

Other

• More than 4 weeks since prior systemic therapy and recovered