RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of vinorelbine in treating patients with metastatic prostate cancer that has not responded to hormone therapy.

OBJECTIVES: I. Evaluate the efficacy of vinorelbine in patients with metastatic hormone-resistant prostate cancer. II. Evaluate the toxicity of vinorelbine in these patients. III. Evaluate the quality of life of these patients, and correlate quality of life with PSA response.

OUTLINE: Patients receive a 5-10 minute intravenous infusion of vinorelbine on day 1 and day 8 of a 21-day course. Patients with stabilization of their disease, partial response, or complete response, receive a maximum of 12 courses of treatment. Patients showing disease progression or severe toxic side effects discontinue treatment. Quality of life and pain are assessed prior to treatment, at days 1 and 8 of each course, and at end of the treatment. Patients are followed every 3 months until disease progression.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 14-40 patients will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically or cytologically proven metastatic stage IV prostate cancer Proven hormonal resistance Measurable or evaluable disease PSA at least 3 times upper limit of normal No leptomeningeal or brain metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 18 to 85 Performance status: WHO 0-2 Life expectancy: Greater than 12 weeks Hematopoietic: WBC at least 3500/mm3 OR Granulocyte count at least 2000/mm3 Hemoglobin at least 9 g/dL Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3 Hepatic: Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN) SGOT no greater than 2.5 times ULN Renal: Creatinine no greater than 1.5 times ULN Other: No acute severe infections No other neoplastic diseases except curatively treated basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, or relapse free for more than 5 years after curative treatment of a neoplasm

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: Not specified Chemotherapy: No prior cytostatic chemotherapy Endocrine therapy: At least 1 month since antiandrogens Prior hormonal therapy required Radiotherapy: No radiotherapy within the past 4 weeks No radiotherapy to the lesions used to evaluate activity of the study drug Surgery: Prior orchiectomy allowed Other: No other investigational drugs during the last month No prior therapy with cytostatic agents