Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Children With Progressive Brain Tumors

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Pathologically confirmed low grade residual astrocytomas or other eligible residual tumors of the brain interpreted as low grade (WHO grades I and II) such as the following:
• * Glial Tumors
• * Astrocytic tumors
• * Low grade astrocytoma (variants: fibrillary, protoplasmic, gemistocytic)
• * Pilocytic astrocytoma
• * Pleomorphic xanthoastrocytomas
• * Subependymal giant cell astrocytoma
• * Infantile desmoplastic astrocytoma
• * Low grade oligodendroglial tumors
• * Low grade oligodendroglioma
• * Low grade mixed gliomas
• * Oligo-astrocytoma
• * Neuronal Tumors
• * Ganglioglioma (excluding tumors with anaplastic astrocytic components)
• * Infantile desmoplastic ganglioglioma
• * Chiasmatic-hypothalamic tumor without histologic confirmation
• All of the following diagnostic tests (radiological or clinical evidence of progression, surgery, or confirmatory MRI) must be carried out within 6 weeks of enrollment into this study
• Progressive disease following surgical excision based on clear radiological or clinical evidence of progression, or an incomplete excision (less than 95% or greater than 1.5 cm2) with necessity to begin treatment because of a risk of neurologic impairment with progression
• Chiasmatic lesions that have contiguous extensions of tumor into other regions of the visual pathways demonstrated on contrast MRI will be eligible for study without histopathological confirmation
• Patients with neurofibromatosis who have radiographic diagnosis of chiasmatic-hypothalamic tumor are eligible for the study, without requiring a biopsy confirmation of tumor histology, but not unless tumor progression is documented radiographically
• No intrinsic brain stem tumors of the pons or isolated optic nerve tumors without definitive involvement of the optic chiasm
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Age:
• Under 10
• Performance status:
• Not specified
• Life expectancy:
• Not specified
• Hematopoietic:
• Absolute neutrophil count greater than 1,000/mm\^3 (arm II)
• Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm\^3 (arm II)
• Hepatic:
• Not specified
• Renal:
• Creatinine less than 1.5 times upper limit of normal for age OR
• Creatinine clearance or radioisotope GFR greater than 70 mL/min or equivalent GFR as determined by the institutional normal range
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy:
• Not specified
• Chemotherapy:
• No prior chemotherapy for the tumor
• Endocrine therapy:
• Prior corticosteroid therapy allowed
• Radiotherapy:
• No prior radiotherapy for the tumor
• Surgery:
• See Disease characteristics
• Other:
• Prior diuretic therapy allowed