RATIONALE: Vaccines made from peptides may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. Giving booster vaccinations may make a stronger immune response and prevent or delay the recurrence of cancer.

PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of booster vaccinations in preventing cancer recurrence in patients who have melanoma.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the toxicity of booster vaccination with gp100:209-217 (210M) peptide and HPV-16 E7 (12-20) peptide vaccine emulsified in Montanide ISA-51 administered at least 12 months after prior vaccination in patients with melanoma.
• Determine T-cell response to modified gp100: 209-217 (210M) peptide and unmodified native gp100 peptide in these patients.
• Determine T-cell response to the control HLA-A2-restricted CD8 epitope of HPV-16 E7 (12-20) peptide vaccine in these patients.

OUTLINE: Patients undergo leukapheresis on day 0. Patients receive vaccination comprising gp100:209-217 (210M) and HPV-16 E7 (12-20) peptide vaccine emulsified in Montanide ISA-51 subcutaneously (SC) on days 1 and 28 in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients undergo a second leukapheresis 2-4 weeks after the second vaccination.

Patients who remain disease free for 6 months after the second vaccination may receive additional booster vaccinations SC every 6 months for 3 years.

Patients are followed at 3 and 6 months after the second vaccination and then every 6 months thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 30 patients will be accrued for this study within 1.5 years.

Ages Eligible for Study:  16 Years and above,  Genders Eligible for Study:  Both

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Completed treatment on PPMC-IRB-99-9*
• At least 12 months since last vaccination NOTE: *Patients are not required to have received every planned vaccine as long as the reason for stopping was not disease progression or dose-limiting toxicity
• No current evidence of melanoma, as defined by one of the following:
• Disease-free since completion of PPMC-IRB-99-9
• Recurrence occurred but was completely resected

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age

• Over 16

Performance status

• Karnofsky 80-100%

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• WBC at least 3,500/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin at least 9 g/dL

Hepatic

• Bilirubin no greater than 2 mg/dL

Renal

• Creatinine no greater than 2 mg/dL

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for at least 6 months after study participation
• No other concurrent medical or psychiatric illness that would preclude study participation
• No concurrent significant systemic infection
• No other concurrent cancer or at low risk for recurrence of prior cancers

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy

• See Disease Characteristics

Chemotherapy

• Not specified

Endocrine therapy

• Concurrent systemic corticosteroids allowed provided they do not interfere with protocol therapy, in the opinion of the principal investigator

Radiotherapy

• Not specified

Surgery

• Recovered from prior major surgery