OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the safety and toxicity of intravenous injections of autologous cultured dendritic cells pulsed with either gp100 and tyrosinase peptides or autologous melanoma tumor cell lysates in patients with metastatic melanoma. II. Determine whether treatment with melanoma tumor antigen pulsed autologous dendritic cells results in increased in vitro tumor specific cytotoxic T-cell responses. III. Determine whether this treatment can induce positive skin test responses to tumor antigens. IV. Evaluate the disease free and overall survival of these patients.