131 I-MIBG in Treating Patients With Refractory or Relapsed Neuroblastoma

Inclusion Criteria

• •DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Original diagnosis of neuroblastoma based on 1 of the following criteria:
• •* Histopathology
• •* Elevated urine catecholamines with typical tumor cells in the bone marrow
• •Refractory or relapsed disease, meeting 1 of the following criteria:
• •* Failure to respond to standard therapy (e.g., combination chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy and surgery)
• •* Evidence of disease progression (i.e., any new lesion or an increase in size of \> 25% of a pre-existing lesion) at any time
• •Evaluable disease by MIBG scan within 6 weeks of study entry
• •PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Not pregnant or nursing
• •Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• •Negative pregnancy test
• •Bilirubin \< 2 times normal
• •AST/ALT ≤ 10 times normal
• •Creatinine ≤ 2 mg/dL
• •Absolute neutrophil count\* ≥ 750/mm\^3 (transfusion independent)
• •Platelet count\* ≥ 50,000/mm\^3 (20,000/mm\^3 if stem cells are available and platelet transfusion independent)
• •Hemoglobin\* ≥ 10 g/dL (transfusion allowed)
• •No dyspnea at rest
• •No exercise intolerance
• •No oxygen requirement
• •No clinically significant cardiac dysfunction
• •No disease of any major organ system that would preclude study compliance
• •No active infection that meets grade 3 or 4 toxicity criteria NOTE: \*Patients with granulocytopenia and/or thrombocytopenia due to tumor metastases to the bone marrow may be eligible at the discretion of the principal investigator
• •PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• •See Disease Characteristics
• •Recovered from prior therapy
• •At least 2 weeks since prior antitumor therapy
• •At least 3 months since prior radiotherapy to any of the following fields:
• •* Craniospinal
• •* Total abdominal
• •* Whole lung
• •* Total body
• •At least 1 day since prior cytokine therapy (e.g., filgrastim \[G-CSF\], sargramostim \[GM-CSF\], interleukin-6, or epoetin alfa)
• •Prior iodine I 131 metaiodobenzylguanidine allowed provided it was given more than 6 months ago AND patient has adequate hematopoietic stem cells available
• •No concurrent hemodialysis