Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Histologically or cytologically confirmed solid tumor, meeting 1 of the following
criteria:

- Not amenable to standard therapy

- Refractory to conventional therapy

- Measurable or evaluable disease

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- Karnofsky performance status 70-100%

- Life expectancy > 3 months

- Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,500/mm³

- Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm³

- Hemoglobin > 9 g/L (transfusion independent)

- Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)

- ALT and AST ≤ 2.5 times ULN

- Creatinine clearance ≥ 60 mL/min

- PT/INR or aPTT ≤ 1.1 times ULN

- Not pregnant or nursing

- Negative pregnancy test

- Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for 30 days after
completion of study treatment

- No significant cardiac comorbidity including any of the following:

- New York Heart Association class III-IV congenital heart failure

- LVEF < 40%

- Unstable angina

- Myocardial infarction within the past 6 months

- Ventricular arrhythmias requiring drug therapy

- Pacemaker or implanted defibrillator

- No ongoing coagulopathy

- No uncontrolled infection or infection requiring parenteral antibiotics

- No other significant clinical disorder or laboratory finding that would preclude
study treatment

- No known HIV positivity

- No known positivity for hepatitis B surface antigen or hepatitis C with abnormal
liver tests

- No known allergy to nonplatinum-containing alkylating agents

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- Recovered from prior therapy

- More than 2 weeks since prior hormonal therapy (except for androgen-deprivation
therapy)

- More than 4 weeks since prior major surgery

- More than 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas or mitomycin C)

- More than 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy

- More than 1 month since prior investigational drugs, therapies, or devices

- No prior radiotherapy to > 25% of bone marrow

- No prior high-dose chemotherapy, either myeloablative or nonmyeloablative
(mini-allogeneic transplant)

- No more than 3 prior myelosuppressive chemotherapy regimens

- Concurrent steroids allowed provided dose is stable for ≥ 2 weeks and clinical
condition is stable for 1 month

- Nasal, opthalmologic, and topical glucocorticoid preparations allowed

- Physiologic hormone replacement therapies allowed (i.e., oral replacement
glucocorticoid therapy for adrenal insufficiency)

- No concurrent prophylactic hematopoietic growth factors

- No concurrent radiotherapy, including local palliative radiotherapy or systemic
radioisotopes

- Radioisotopes for protocol specified positron emission tomography allowed

- No other concurrent investigational agents

- No other concurrent chemotherapy, radiotherapy (including palliative local
radiotherapy), hormonal therapy (except for androgen-deprivation therapy), and/or
biological therapy (including immunotherapy)