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 with docetaxel in treating patients who have advanced solid tumors.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the maximum tolerated dose of flavopiridol when administered in combination with 2 different doses of docetaxel in patients with advanced solid tumors.
• Determine the clinical pharmacokinetics of this regimen in these patients.
• Determine, preliminarily, the therapeutic activity of this regimen in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation study of flavopiridol.

Patients receive docetaxel IV over 30 minutes followed at least 4 hours later by flavopiridol IV over 1 hour on days 1, 8, and 15. Courses repeat every 4 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of flavopiridol until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which at least 2 of 6 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity. Separate MTDs of flavopiridol are determined when flavopiridol is combined with 2 different doses of docetaxel. A total of 10 patients are treated at each flavopiridol MTD.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year, every 6 months for 1 year, and then annually thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 6-56 patients will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed advanced solid tumor that is refractory to standard therapy or for which no standard therapy exists
• Measurable or evaluable disease
• No symptomatic or untreated CNS metastases or primary CNS neoplasm

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 18 and over

Performance status

• Karnofsky 70-100%

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• WBC at least 3,500/mm3
• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,500/mm3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3
• Hemoglobin at least 8 g/dL

Hepatic

• Bilirubin no greater than upper limit of normal (ULN)
• SGOT/SGPT no greater than 2.5 times ULN if alkaline phosphatase no greater than ULN OR
• Alkaline phosphatase no greater than 2.5 times ULN if SGOT/SGPT no greater than ULN

Renal

• Creatinine no greater than 1.5 mg/dL

Cardiovascular

• No history of cardiac arrhythmias
• No congestive heart failure
• No myocardial infarction within the past 6 months

Other

• No concurrent serious or uncontrolled infection
• No diabetes not adequately controlled with medication
• No peripheral neuropathy greater than grade 1
• No known allergy to docetaxel or other medications formulated in Polysorbate 80
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for 2 months after study

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• At least 4 weeks since prior immunotherapy

Chemotherapy

• At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas or mitomycin)
• Prior taxanes allowed
• No prior flavopiridol

Endocrine therapy

• At least 4 weeks since prior hormonal therapy

Radiotherapy

• At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy

Surgery

• Not specified

Other

• Recovered from prior therapy
• No prior enrollment in this study