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)