p946

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from peptide 946 may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. Combining these vaccines with proteins from the tetanus vaccine, and/or with either QS21 or Montanide ISA-51 may be an effective treatment for metastatic melanoma.
PURPOSE: Randomized phase I trial to study the effectiveness of vaccines made from peptide 946 with or without tetanus peptide, QS21, or Montanide ISA-51 in treating patients with metastatic melanoma that cannot be surgically removed or with melanoma that is likely to recur.