Fenretinide in Treating Patients With Recurrent or Metastatic Ovarian Epithelial or Primary Peritoneal Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate the efficacy of fenretinide (4-HPR) in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer or primary peritoneal carcinoma. II. To assess the toxicity of this agent in this patient population. III. To evaluate molecular changes in normal and tumor cells induced by 4-HPR by studying: (a) the analysis of ceramide and glucosyleceramide levels before and after therapy, (b) intracellular levels of 4-HPR and 4-MPR, and (c) determinants of apoptosis (p53, p21, bcl-2, bax and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase \[TdT\] assay) in baseline tumor specimens, serial serum and tumor biopsy specimens where available, and surrogate in-vitro studies. IV. To evaluate the pharmacokinetics of fenretinide. V. To further investigate the antiangiogenesis effects of fenretinide in in-vitro assays using ovarian cancer cell lines and in vascular growth factor (VEGF, TGFb) plasma levels in patients. OUTLINE: Patients receive oral fenretinide twice daily on days 1-7. Treatment repeats every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.