Tipifarnib in Treating Young Patients With Refractory Leukemia

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Histologically confirmed acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia, juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), or chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in blast crisis
• * Refractory to standard curative therapy
• * Acute promyelocytic leukemia refractory to tretinoin and arsenic trioxide
• * Philadelphia chromosome-positive CML refractory to imatinib mesylate
• Greater than 25% blasts in bone marrow (M3 bone marrow) except for patients with JMML
• Active extramedullary disease allowed
• No active leptomeningeal leukemia
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Age:
• 21 and under
• Performance status:
• Karnofsky 50-100% (over 10 years of age)
• Lansky 50-100% (10 years of age and under)
• Life expectancy:
• Not specified
• Hematopoietic:
• Not required to be normal
• Hepatic:
• Bilirubin normal
• SGPT and SGOT normal
• No significant hepatic dysfunction
• No grade 3 or 4 liver function test results within the past month
• Renal:
• Creatinine normal OR
• Creatinine clearance at least 60 mL/min
• No significant renal dysfunction
• Cardiovascular:
• No significant cardiac dysfunction
• Pulmonary:
• No significant pulmonary dysfunction
• Neurologic:
• No history of grand mal seizures grade 3 or greater except febrile seizures
• No persistent sensory or motor neuropathy greater than grade 2
• Other:
• No clinically significant unrelated systemic illness
• No serious infection
• No organ dysfunction that would preclude study participation
• No requirement for total parenteral nutrition
• No known allergy to azoles (e.g., clotrimazole, fluconazole, ketoconazole, voriconazole)
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy:
• At least 1 week since prior colony-stimulating factor therapy (e.g., filgrastim \[G-CSF\] or sargramostim \[GM-CSF\]) except epoetin alfa
• At least 3 months since prior myeloablative therapy followed by bone marrow or stem cell transplantation
• No concurrent immunotherapy
• No concurrent GM-CSF or interleukin-11
• Chemotherapy:
• At least 2 weeks since prior chemotherapy
• No concurrent intrathecal chemotherapy
• No other concurrent chemotherapy
• Endocrine therapy:
• At least 1 week since prior corticosteroids
• No concurrent corticosteroids (except for acute allergic reaction)
• Radiotherapy:
• At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy
• No concurrent radiotherapy
• Surgery:
• Not specified
• Other:
• Recovered from nonhematologic toxicity of all prior therapy
• At least 1 week since prior retinoids
• No antacids (magnesium- or aluminum-containing formulations) within 2 hours of study drug
• No other concurrent investigational agents
• No concurrent retinoids
• No concurrent anticonvulsants