Epothilone D as Second-Line Treatment for Patients With Advanced or Metastatic Refractory Colorectal Cancer

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy such as epothilone D work in different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well epothilone D works as second-line therapy in treating patients with advanced or metastatic refractory colorectal cancer.

OBJECTIVES: Primary * Determine the antitumor activity of epothilone D as second-line treatment, in terms of objective response rate, in patients with advanced or metastatic refractory colorectal cancer. Secondary * Determine the safety of this drug in these patients. * Determine the response duration in patients responding to treatment with this drug. * Determine time to tumor progression and overall survival in patients treated with this drug. * Correlate efficacy and safety with plasma concentrations of this drug and its major metabolites in these patients. OUTLINE: This is an open-label, multicenter study. Patients receive epothilone D IV over 90 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15. Courses repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed every 3 months. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 19-69 patients will be accrued for this study.