DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM) requiring treatment

  • Durie-Salmon stage I or greater at diagnosis

    • Patients with non-secretory or oligo-secretory MM (defined as maximum urinary M-spike less than 200 mg/24 hours and a maximum serum M-spike less than 0.5 g/dL during entire disease course) must have at least 30% bone marrow plasma cells
    • Patients with secretory MM must have measurable disease defined as serum monoclonal protein of at least 1 g/dL or urinary M-spike of at least 200 mg/24 hours

• Must have received at least 1, but no more than 5 prior therapy regimens

  • Patients who have had 4 or 5 regimens are allowed provided corticosteroids and/or thalidomide are part of the regimens
  • No more than 5 prior chemotherapy regimens (as long as 2 contained dexamethasone or thalidomide)
  • Prior autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation is considered 1 prior regimen

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 18 and over

Performance status

• ECOG 0-2 OR
• ECOG 0-3 if secondary to neuropathy or acute bone event (e.g., vertebral compression or rib fracture)

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• Absolute neutrophil count at least 750/mm^3

Hepatic

• Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• Alkaline phosphatase no greater than 2.5 times ULN
• AST no greater than 2.5 times ULN

Renal

• Creatinine no greater than 3 mg/dL

Cardiovascular

• No myocardial infarction within the past 6 months

Other

• Peripheral neuropathy secondary to prior drug therapy or myeloma-associated neuropathy allowed
• No other uncontrolled serious medical condition
• No uncontrolled infection
• No other active malignancy
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior allogeneic stem cell transplantation
• At least 10 days since prior thalidomide
• No concurrent biologic therapy

Chemotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• At least 2 weeks since prior myelosuppressive chemotherapy
• No other concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

• See Disease Characteristics

• No concurrent corticosteroids (including as antiemetics) except chronic corticosteroids for disorders other than myeloma (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis or adrenal insufficiency)

  • Maximum dose allowed for prednisone is no more than 10 mg/day or hydrocortisone no more than 40 mg/day

Radiotherapy

• Not specified

Surgery

• Not specified

Other

• At least 10 days since prior bortezomib or tipifarnib
• Concurrent bisphosphonates allowed if on stable dose before study entry