Autologous dendritic cell-tumor fusion vaccine(Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a patient's dendritic cells may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. It is not yet known whether combining vaccine therapy with either gp100 antigen or the patient's tumor cells will cause a stronger immune response and kill more tumor cells.
PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying vaccine therapy and gp100 antigen to see how well they work compared to vaccine therapy and patient's tumor cells in treating patients with stage III or stage IV melanoma.