Gamma-Secretase/Notch Signalling Pathway Inhibitor RO4929097 in Treating Patients With Stage IV Melanoma

Inclusion criteria

* Patients must have histologically confirmed melanoma of cutaneous or unknown origin (ocular primary and mucosal primary excluded); patients must have Stage IV disease * All patients must undergo a computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain within 42 days prior to registration that is negative for brain metastases; patients with a history of brain metastases are ineligible * Patients must have measurable disease; all measurable lesions must be assessed (by physical examination, CT, or MRI scan) within 28 days prior to registration; tests to assess non-measurable disease must be performed within 42 days prior to registration; all disease must be assessed and documented on the Baseline Tumor Assessment Form (Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors \[RECIST\] 1.1); the CT from a combined positron emission tomography (PET)/CT must not be used to document measurable disease unless it is of diagnostic quality * Sites must offer all patients participation in translational medicine studies and banking of paraffin embedded tissue and whole blood * Patients must not have received any prior systemic therapy for Stage IV disease except for noncytotoxic biologic agents (e.g., vaccines, cytokines, cell therapies that do not require cytotoxic agents); patients may have received prior treatment with up to two prior biological therapies - no cytotoxics or kinase inhibitors - for advanced disease * Patients may have had prior adjuvant immunotherapy with biological response modifiers (examples include but are not limited to interferon, vaccines, GM-CSF, and CTLA-4 blocking antibodies); prior adjuvant immunotherapy must have been completed at least 28 days prior to registration * Adjuvant therapy containing cytotoxic agents is allowed if completed \>= 180 days prior to registration * Patients may have received prior radiation therapy; any side effects the patients had due to prior radiation therapy must have resolved to =\< Grade 1 prior to registration; prior radiation therapy must have completed at least 28 days prior to registration * Patients must have Zubrod performance status of 0-1 * Leukocytes \>= 3,000/mcL * Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) \>= 1,500/mcL * Platelets \>= 100,000/mcL * Hemoglobin \>= 9 g/dL * Total bilirubin =\< institutional upper limit of normal (IULN) * Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) or alanine aminotransferase (ALT) =\< 2.5 x IULN * Serum creatinine =\< IULN OR measured or calculated creatinine clearance \>= 60 mL/min * Patients must have the following serum electrolytes within the institutional ranges of normal: potassium, sodium, magnesium, phosphorous, chloride and calcium (corrected for serum albumin); these tests must be performed within 28 days prior to registration; patient must not require parenteral replacement therapy * Patients must not have a history of allergic reaction attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to RO4929097 * Patients must be able to swallow tablets * Patients must not have malabsorption syndrome or other condition that would interfere with intestinal absorption of the agent * Patients taking medications with narrow therapeutic indices that are metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP450), including warfarin sodium (Coumadin), are ineligible * Patients must not be taking strong inducers or strong inhibitors of CYP3A4 at the time of registration * Patients must not be known to be serologically positive for Hepatitis A, B, or C, or have a history of liver disease, other forms of hepatitis, or cirrhosis * Patients must have an ECG within 28 days prior to registration. Patients must not have a QTcF \> 450 msec (males) or QTcF \> 470 msec (females) * Patients must not have symptomatic congestive heart failure or unstable angina pectoris * Patients with a history of torsades de pointes or any significant cardiac arrhythmia (except asymptomatic unifocal ventricular premature beats or supraventricular tachycardia easily controlled with oral medications) are excluded; any patient requiring or expected to require antiarrhythmics or other therapy known to prolong QTc is also excluded * No other prior malignancy is allowed except for the following: adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer, in situ cervical cancer, adequately treated Stage I or II cancer from which the patient is currently in complete remission, or any other cancer from which the patient has been disease free for five years * Women of childbearing potential must have a negative pregnancy test within 14 days prior to registration (the type of pregnancy test used is at the discretion of the registering institution); female patients of childbearing potential include the following: * Patients with regular menses * Patients, after menarche with amenorrhea, irregular cycles, or using a contraceptive method that precludes withdrawal bleeding * Women who have had tubal ligation * Women must not be nursing due to possible harm to a nursing infant from the treatment regimen * All patients must be informed of the investigational nature of this study and must sign and give written informed consent in accordance with institutional and federal guidelines * At the time of patient registration, the treating institution's name and ID number must be provided to the Data Operations Center in Seattle in order to ensure that the current (within 365 days) date of institutional review board approval for this study has been entered into the data base