RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy consisting of ifosfamide and doxorubicin in patients with advanced sarcoma.

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the response rate, time to treatment failure, and survival in patients with advanced soft tissue or gynecological sarcoma treated with high-dose ifosfamide and doxorubicin.

OUTLINE: Patients receive ifosfamide IV continuously on days 1-5 and doxorubicin IV on days 1-3. Filgrastim (G-CSF) is administered subcutaneously daily beginning 24 hours after completion of ifosfamide infusion and continuing through day 16 (or until day 20 if blood counts have not recovered by day 16). Courses repeat every 3 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed at treatment failure and then annually thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 16-46 patients will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically proven advanced soft tissue or gynecologic sarcoma Measurable disease No brain metastases (CT scan required if metastases are clinically suspected)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 18 to 70 Performance status: WHO 0-2 Hematopoietic: WBC at least 3,500/mm3 Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3 Hepatic: Liver function tests no greater than 2 times normal Albumin 4.0-6.0 g/dL Renal: Creatinine clearance at least 60 mL/min Cardiovascular: Cardiac function normal by MUGA scan or echocardiogram Other: No other prior or concurrent malignancy except radically removed nonmelanomatous skin cancer

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: Not specified Chemotherapy: No prior chemotherapy Endocrine therapy: Not specified Radiotherapy: No prior radiotherapy to the bladder No prior radiotherapy to indicator lesion Surgery: Not specified