DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of melanoma

  • Stage IIC, III, or IV cutaneous or mucosal disease
  • Stage III or IV ocular disease
  • Completely resected disease
• Disease-free within the past year after radiotherapy or systemic chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy

• Must be HLA-A1 or -A3/A11 positive by standard DNA-polymerase chain reaction assay AND HLA-B44 status known

  • Patients who are B44-positive but do not express A1, A3, or A11 are not eligible
• Positive for gp100 and/or tyrosinase antigen by immunohistochemistry

• Meets 1 of the following conditions for interferon alfa (IFN-α) therapy:

  • Failed prior IFN-α therapy
  • IFN-α contraindicated due to pre-existing medical or psychiatric condition
  • Refused IFN-α treatment

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 16 and over

Performance status

• ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• Granulocyte count ≥ 1,500/mm^3
• WBC ≥ 3,000/mm^3
• Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin ≥ 9.0 g/dL
• No coagulation or bleeding disorders

Hepatic

• SGOT and SGPT ≤ 2.5 times normal
• Bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dL
• Hepatitis B surface antigen negative
• Hepatitis C antibody negative

Renal

• Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL

Cardiovascular

• No major medical illness of the cardiovascular system

Pulmonary

• No pneumonia
• No other major medical illness of the respiratory system

Immunologic

• HIV negative
• No sepsis
• No history of uveitis
• No major systemic infection
• No known allergic reaction to Montanide ISA 51 and ISA 51 VG
• No autoimmune inflammatory eye disease
• No other autoimmune disease except vitiligo or controlled thyroiditis

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No major medical illness of the gastrointestinal system
• No other malignancy within the past 3 years except curatively treated squamous cell or basal cell skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior gp100 antigen, MAGE-3, or tyrosinase peptide

Chemotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• More than 6 weeks since prior nitrosoureas

Endocrine therapy

• More than 4 weeks since prior steroid therapy
• No concurrent steroid therapy

Radiotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• More than 1 month since prior radiotherapy

Surgery

• See Disease Characteristics

Other

• More than 1 month since prior anticancer therapy
• More than 1 month since prior adjuvant therapy
• No other concurrent anticancer therapy