The purpose of this study is to determine the safety of giving subjects with advanced, recurrent or refractory melanoma the HyperAcute® Melanoma vaccine with a variant of a drug, called Interferon (PEG-Intron®) that is specially formulated to be given on a weekly basis (instead of daily). The study vaccine (HyperAcute®-Melanoma) is made from three types of human melanoma cell lines (grown in the laboratory) in which the genes have been slightly changed. This clinical study will try to discover the safety of the study vaccine combined with PEG-Intron®, its side effects and the potential benefits, if any.

Interferon alfa may interfere with the growth of cancer cells. It is not yet known whether treatment with interferon alfa is more effective than observation alone for stage II or stage III melanoma that has been completely removed surgically.

This randomized phase III trial is studying high dose interferon alfa to see how well it works compared to observation only in treating patients with stage II or stage III melanoma that has been completely removed by surgery.