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 arsenic trioxide in treating patients who have metastatic kidney cancer.

OBJECTIVES: I. Evaluate the efficacy of arsenic trioxide in patients with metastatic renal cell cancer. II. Determine the safety of this regimen in this patient population.

OUTLINE: Patients receive arsenic trioxide IV over 1-4 hours daily for 5 days. Treatment continues every 4 weeks for a maximum of 12 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed for at least 1 month.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 12-37 patients will be accrued for this study within 6-19 months.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically confirmed metastatic renal cell cancer Bidimensionally measurable disease No brain metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: Not specified Performance status: Karnofsky 70-100% Life expectancy: Greater than 3 months Hematopoietic: WBC at least 3,000/mm3 Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,500/mm3 Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3 Hepatic: Bilirubin normal ALT or AST no greater than 2.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN) Renal: Creatinine no greater than 1.5 times ULN (no greater than 1.95 mg/dL at MSKCC) Other: Not pregnant or nursing Negative pregnancy test Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for 4 months after study No other prior malignancy unless curatively treated and disease free for the past 5 years and considered low risk for recurrence

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: At least 4 weeks since prior biologic therapy and recovered No concurrent biologic therapy Chemotherapy: At least 4 weeks since prior cytotoxic chemotherapy and recovered No other concurrent cytotoxic chemotherapy Endocrine therapy: At least 4 weeks since prior hormonal therapy and recovered No concurrent hormonal therapy Radiotherapy: At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy No concurrent radiotherapy Surgery: At least 4 weeks since prior major surgery