Colony-Stimulating Factors in Treating Children With Recurrent or Refractory Solid Tumors

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically proven (except for brain stem tumors) malignancy that has

failed or relapsed after standard first-line antineoplastic therapy

Sarcoma (soft tissue and bone)
Kidney tumors
Brain tumors
Other solid tumors (gonadal and germ cell tumors, malignant melanoma,
retinoblastoma, liver tumors, and miscellaneous tumors) Must have had recurrence within the past 4 weeks

No bone marrow involvement

No prior or concurrent myelogenous leukemia

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

1 to 21

Performance status:

Lansky or Karnofsky 60-100%

Life expectancy:

At least 12 weeks

Hematopoietic:

Absolute neutrophil count greater than 1000/mm3
Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm3
No grade III or IV thrombosis

Hepatic:

Bilirubin less than 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
SGOT or SGPT less than 2.5 times ULN

Renal:

Creatinine clearance or glomerular filtration rate at least 70 mL/min

Cardiovascular:

Ejection fraction normal
No evidence of arrhythmias requiring therapy
Fractional shortening greater than 28%

Other:

Not pregnant or nursing

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

At least 10 days since prior colony-stimulating factor therapy and recovered
At least 30 days since prior epoetin alfa
No other concurrent cytokines, including epoetin alfa

Chemotherapy:

At least 3 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas) and
recovered
At least 3 months since therapy with etoposide, carboplatin, or ifosfamide
that is identical to study treatment

Endocrine therapy:

Not specified

Radiotherapy:

Concurrent radiotherapy allowed after third course of therapy
No prior cranial/spinal radiotherapy
No prior radiotherapy to greater than 50% of bone marrow

Surgery:

Concurrent surgery allowed after the second course of therapy

Other:

No concurrent investigational agents
No concurrent lithium, aspirin, coumadin, or heparin