Veliparib and Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Advanced Solid Malignancies With Peritoneal Carcinomatosis, Epithelial Ovarian, Fallopian, or Primary Peritoneal Cancer

Dose levels 1-4 must have histologically proven solid malignancy that is metastatic or unresectable with metastatic peritoneal carcinomatosis; as this entity may be difficult to image, peritoneal disease can be documented through other modalities such as operative notes, clinical notes/symptoms, etc as well as imaging

Dose levels 5 and 6 will be open only to patients with recurrent or persistent primary epithelial ovarian, fallopian or peritoneal cancers; at these dose levels, measurable disease in the abdominal cavity must be present but peritoneal carcinomatosis is not required for eligibility

Patients must have failed first line standard therapy or have no acceptable standard treatment options; for patients on dose levels 5 and 6, patients may be platinum sensitive, platinum resistant or platinum refractory

Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document

Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status =\< 1

Life expectancy of greater than 3 months

Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) \>= 1,500/mcL

Platelets \>= 100,000/mcL

Total bilirubin =\< 1.5 x upper limit of normal (ULN)

Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase \[SGOT\])/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase \[SGPT\]) =\< 2.5 x ULN

Creatinine =\< 1.5 x ULN OR creatinine clearance \>= 60 mL/min/1.73 m\^2 for patients with creatinine levels above institutional normal

Calcium within normal limit (WNL)

No surgery, hormonal therapy or chemotherapy within four weeks; for dose levels 5 and 6, patients receiving mitomycin C or nitrosoureas must discontinue treatment 6 weeks prior to registration and any hormonal treatment directed at the malignant tumor must be discontinued at least one week prior to registration; continuation of hormone replacement therapy is permitted

No previous abdominal radiation; if the patient has received previous pelvic radiation there should not be any overlap between the current and previous radiation fields

Toxicities of prior chemotherapy recovered to grade 1 or less except for stable grade 2 peripheral neuropathy

Negative pregnancy test if premenopausal; women of child-bearing potential and men must agree to use adequate contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control; abstinence) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation; should a woman become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while participating in this study, she should inform her treating physician immediately

Archival tumor sample collection with a tumor block is required for all enrolled patients when available; this will not be required for patients on dose levels 5 and 6; if no block can be released per institutional policy, 10 to 20 unstained slides may be substituted; slides should have a positive charge and a thickness of 3 to 5 microns; if the only tissue sample available is a fine needle aspirate (FNA), the patient will still be considered eligible

Patients with central nervous system (CNS) metastases to be stable after therapy for \> 3 months and off steroid treatment prior to study enrollment

For patients in dose levels 5 and 6, BRCA testing results, if previously performed, should be attained; if no BRCA testing has been performed, patients may be referred to a genetic counselor and will have detailed family history performed as part of the screening process

What this study is about