Colony-Stimulating Factors in Treating Children With Recurrent or Refractory Solid Tumors

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically proven (except for brain stem tumors) malignancy that has
• failed or relapsed after standard first-line antineoplastic therapy
• Sarcoma (soft tissue and bone)
• Kidney tumors
• Brain tumors
• Other solid tumors (gonadal and germ cell tumors, malignant melanoma,
• retinoblastoma, liver tumors, and miscellaneous tumors) Must have had recurrence within the past 4 weeks
• No bone marrow involvement
• No prior or concurrent myelogenous leukemia
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Age:
• 1 to 21
• Performance status:
• Lansky or Karnofsky 60-100%
• Life expectancy:
• At least 12 weeks
• Hematopoietic:
• Absolute neutrophil count greater than 1000/mm3
• Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm3
• No grade III or IV thrombosis
• Hepatic:
• Bilirubin less than 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• SGOT or SGPT less than 2.5 times ULN
• Renal:
• Creatinine clearance or glomerular filtration rate at least 70 mL/min
• Cardiovascular:
• Ejection fraction normal
• No evidence of arrhythmias requiring therapy
• Fractional shortening greater than 28%
• Other:
• Not pregnant or nursing
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy:
• At least 10 days since prior colony-stimulating factor therapy and recovered
• At least 30 days since prior epoetin alfa
• No other concurrent cytokines, including epoetin alfa
• Chemotherapy:
• At least 3 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas) and
• recovered
• At least 3 months since therapy with etoposide, carboplatin, or ifosfamide
• that is identical to study treatment
• Endocrine therapy:
• Not specified
• Radiotherapy:
• Concurrent radiotherapy allowed after third course of therapy
• No prior cranial/spinal radiotherapy
• No prior radiotherapy to greater than 50% of bone marrow
• Surgery:
• Concurrent surgery allowed after the second course of therapy
• Other:
• No concurrent investigational agents
• No concurrent lithium, aspirin, coumadin, or heparin