DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed metastatic melanoma

  • Stage IV disease
• HLA-A1, -A2, and -A3 positive
• MAGE-1 or -3 positive by histology
• Bidimensionally measurable disease by palpation on clinical examination, x-ray, or CT scan
• No CNS metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 18 to 75

Performance status

• Karnofsky 80-100%

Life expectancy

• More than 6 months

Hematopoietic

• Not specified

Hepatic

• Bilirubin ≤ 1.6 mg/dL
• SGOT ≤ 3 times upper limit of normal
• PT ≤ 1.5 times control

Renal

• Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL
• Calcium ≤ 12 mg/dL

Cardiovascular

• No congestive heart failure
• No clinically significant hypotension
• No symptoms of coronary artery disease
• No cardiac arrhythmias on electrocardiogram requiring drug therapy
• Patients with prior cardiovascular disease or the presence of any of the above abnormalities undergo a cardiac evaluation, which may include a stress test and/or echocardiogram

Pulmonary

• No clinically significant pulmonary dysfunction by medical history or physical examination
• FEV_1 ≥ 60% of normal
• DLCO ≥ 55% (corrected for hemoglobin)

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No retinitis or choroiditis
• No active infections or oral temperature greater than 38.2 degrees Celsius within the past 72 hours
• No systemic infection requiring chronic maintenance or suppressive therapy

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• No other concurrent immunotherapy (e.g., other interleukins, interferons, melanoma vaccines, intravenous immunoglobulin, or expanded polyclonal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes or lymphokine-activated killer cell therapy)

Chemotherapy

• At least 3 weeks since prior standard or experimental chemotherapy
• 1-2 courses of prior cytoreductive chemotherapy for bulky disease allowed

Endocrine therapy

• No concurrent systemic steroids (except for toxicity management)

Radiotherapy

• At least 3 weeks since prior radiotherapy

Surgery

• Not specified

Other

• At least 3 weeks since prior immunosuppressive therapy
• No concurrent pentoxifylline
• No other concurrent investigational agents