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 I trial to study the effectiveness of combining flavopiridol and docetaxel in treating patients who have advanced solid tumors.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the dose-limiting toxic effects and maximum tolerated dose of flavopiridol and docetaxel in patients with advanced solid tumors.
• Determine the objective response rate and duration of response in patients treated with this regimen.
• Determine the pharmacokinetics of these drugs in this patient population.

OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation study.

Patients receive docetaxel IV over 60 minutes on day 1 and flavopiridol IV continuously over 24 hours on day 2. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of docetaxel and flavopiridol until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 3 or 6 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 18-24 patients will be accrued for this study within 9-11 months.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically or cytologically confirmed metastatic or unresectable solid tumor

  • No standard relatively effective curative or palliative measures exist

• Measurable disease in at least 1 dimension

  • At least 20 mm by conventional techniques OR at least 10 mm by spiral CT scan

• No known clinically active and uncontrolled brain metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• ECOG 0-2
• Karnofsky 60-100%

Life expectancy:

• More than 12 weeks

Hematopoietic:

• WBC at least 3,000/mm^3
• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,500/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3

Hepatic:

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

Renal:

• Creatinine normal

Cardiovascular:

• No symptomatic congestive heart failure
• No unstable angina pectoris
• No cardiac arrhythmia

Other:

• No prior allergic reactions to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to flavopiridol or docetaxel
• No other uncontrolled concurrent illness that would preclude study participation
• No ongoing or active infection
• No psychiatric illness or social situations that would preclude study compliance
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• No concurrent immunotherapy

Chemotherapy:

• At least 6 months since prior taxane therapy
• At least 4 weeks since other prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas or mitomycin) and recovered
• No other concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

• No concurrent hormonal therapy except contraceptives, appetite stimulants, or replacement steroids

Radiotherapy:

• At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy and recovered
• No concurrent radiotherapy

Surgery:

• See Disease Characteristics

Other:

• No other concurrent investigational agents
• No concurrent combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV-positive patients