Inolitazone Dihydrochloride and Paclitaxel in Treating Patients With Advanced Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer

Exclusion Criteria

• •Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status =\< 2
• •Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) \>= 1,500/mm\^3
• •Platelet count \>= 100,000/mm\^3
• •Creatinine =\< 1.5 x upper limit of normal (ULN) mg/dL OR calculated (calc.) creatinine clearance \>= 60 mL/min
• •Bilirubin =\< 1.5 x ULN
• •Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) =\< 2.5 x ULN
• •Although they will not be considered formal eligibility (exclusion) criteria, physicians should recognize that the following may seriously increase the risk to the patient entering this protocol:
• •* Psychiatric illness which would prevent the patient from giving informed consent
• •* Medical condition such as uncontrolled infection (including human immunodeficiency virus \[HIV\]), uncontrolled diabetes mellitus or cardiac disease which, in the opinion of the treating physician, would make this protocol unreasonably hazardous for the patient
• •* Patients with a "currently active" second malignancy other than non-melanoma skin cancers; patients are not considered to have a "currently active" malignancy if they have completed therapy and are free of disease for \>= 3 years; there is an exception for patients with a history of well differentiated thyroid cancer that has progressed to anaplastic thyroid cancer
• •* Patients who cannot swallow oral formulations of the agent(s)
• •* Women and men of reproductive potential should agree to use an appropriate method of birth control throughout their participation in this study ; appropriate methods of birth control include abstinence, oral contraceptives, implantable hormonal contraceptives or double barrier method (diaphragm plus condom)
• •* Efatutazone is metabolized by cytochrome P450, family 3, subfamily A, polypeptide 4/5 (CYP3A4/5), and inhibits CYP2C8, 2C9, 2C19, and 3A4, and is a substrate of P-glycoprotein (PgP) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP)