Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Recurrent, Refractory, or Metastatic Solid Tumors or Lymphomas

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Diagnosis of cancer that has failed standard therapy or for which no such therapy exists, including, but not limited to:
• * Unresectable primary or recurrent solid tumors (e.g., colon, pancreatic, lung, esophageal, or cholangiocarcinoma)
• * Metastatic disease
• * Lymphoma with no prior high-dose chemotherapy requiring autologous or allogeneic stem cell rescue
• No leukemias
• No CNS metastases or primary CNS malignancies
• No failure on prior gemcitabine therapy
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Age:
• 18 and over
• Performance status:
• ECOG 0-2
• Life expectancy:
• Not specified
• Hematopoietic:
• Absolute granulocyte count at least 2,000/mm\^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm\^3
• Hepatic:
• Bilirubin no greater than 2.0 mg/dL
• Transaminases less than 6 times upper limit of normal
• Renal:
• Creatinine no greater than 2.0 mg/dL
• Other:
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No other serious concurrent medical illness that would preclude study
• No active infections requiring IV antibiotics
• HIV negative
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy:
• See Disease Characteristics
• More than 4 weeks since prior immunotherapy and recovered
• Chemotherapy:
• See Disease Characteristics
• More than 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (at least 6 weeks for mitomycin or nitrosoureas) and recovered
• At least 3 months since prior suramin
• At least 5 weeks since prior eniluracil (8 weeks prior to start of fluorouracil) and recovered
• Endocrine therapy:
• No steroid therapy if utilized for chronic lymphoma therapy
• At least 4 weeks since prior steroidal therapy as disease treatment
• Radiotherapy:
• At least 2 weeks since prior radiotherapy to no more than 20% of bone marrow
• At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy to 21% or more of bone marrow
• Recovered from prior radiotherapy
• Surgery:
• Recovered from prior surgery
• Other:
• No concurrent cimetidine