Pemetrexed Disodium in Treating Young Patients With Recurrent Solid Tumors

Inclusion Criteria

• •DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Histologically confirmed solid tumor for which there is no known curative therapy or therapy that is known to prolong survival with acceptable quality of life
• •* Histologic requirement waived for intrinsic brain stem tumors
• •No pleural effusion or ascites
• •Neurological deficits from CNS tumors must have been relatively stable for at least 1 week prior to study entry
• •PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Age
• •1 to 21
• •Performance status
• •Karnofsky 50-100% (over 10 years of age)
• •Lansky 50-100% (10 years of age and under)
• •Life expectancy
• •At least 8 weeks
• •Hematopoietic
• •Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,000/mm\^3
• •Platelet count at least 100,000/mm\^3 (transfusion independent)
• •Hemoglobin at least 8.0 g/dL (transfusion allowed)
• •Hepatic
• •Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• •ALT no greater than 2.5 times ULN
• •Albumin at least 2 g/dL
• •Renal
• •Creatinine clearance or radioisotope glomerular filtration rate at least 70 mL/min OR
• •Creatinine based on age as follows:
• •* No greater than 0.8 mg/dL (age 5 and under)
• •* No greater than 1.0 mg/dL (age 6 to 10)
• •* No greater than 1.2 mg/dL (age 11 to 15)
• •* No greater than 1.5 mg/dL (age 16 and over)
• •Pulmonary
• •No evidence of dyspnea at rest
• •No exercise intolerance
• •Other
• •Not pregnant or nursing
• •Negative pregnancy test
• •Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• •No evidence of Approved-not yet active graft-versus-host disease
• •No uncontrolled infection
• •Seizure disorder allowed provided it is well-controlled with anticonvulsants
• •CNS toxicity no greater than grade 1
• •PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• •Biologic therapy
• •Recovered from prior immunotherapy
• •At least 7 days since prior antineoplastic biologic therapy
• •At least 6 months since prior allogeneic stem cell transplantation
• •More than 1 week since prior growth factors
• •No concurrent biologic therapy
• •No concurrent immunotherapy
• •No concurrent prophylactic growth factor support during course 1
• •Chemotherapy
• •No prior pemetrexed disodium
• •More than 3 weeks since prior myelosuppressive chemotherapy (4 weeks for nitrosoureas) and recovered
• •No other concurrent chemotherapy
• •Endocrine therapy
• •Concurrent dexamethasone for CNS tumors allowed provided dose has been stable or decreasing for at least 1 week prior to study entry
• •Radiotherapy
• •Recovered from all prior radiotherapy
• •At least 2 weeks since prior local palliative radiotherapy
• •At least 6 months since prior craniospinal radiotherapy
• •At least 6 months since prior radiotherapy to 50% or more of the pelvis
• •At least 6 weeks since prior substantial bone marrow radiotherapy
• •No concurrent radiotherapy
• •Surgery
• •Not specified
• •Other
• •No trimethoprim or sulfa within 2 days before and after study drug administration
• •No concurrent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (e.g., ibuprofen and aspirin)
• •No other concurrent anticancer or investigational agents