RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine and docetaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving gemcitabine together with docetaxel works in treating patients with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic head and neck cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• Determine the response rate in patients with previously treated persistent, recurrent, or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated with gemcitabine and docetaxel.

Secondary

• Determine the toxicity of this regimen in these patients.
• Determine the duration of response and survival of patients treated with this regimen.

OUTLINE: Patients receive gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes and docetaxel IV over 60 minutes on day 1. Courses repeat every 14 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients achieving complete response (CR) receive 4 additional courses of therapy beyond documentation of CR.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed for survival.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 17-41 patients will be accrued within 42-49 months.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck
• Metastatic, persistent, or recurrent disease
• Measurable disease, defined as ≥ 1 unidimensionally measurable lesion ≥ 20 mm by conventional techniques OR ≥ 10 mm by spiral CT scan
• Must have had definitive surgery and/or radiation therapy AND received at least 1, but no more than 2, chemotherapy regimens, either given as primary therapy or adjuvant therapy before or after surgery and/or radiotherapy
• No active or prior CNS metastasis

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 18 and over

Performance status

• SWOG 0-2

Life expectancy

• At least 12 weeks

Hematopoietic

• Granulocyte count > 1,500/mm^3
• Hemoglobin ≥ 8 g/dL
• Platelet count > 100,000/mm^3

Hepatic

• Bilirubin normal

• Meets 1 of the following criteria:

  • Alkaline phosphatase (AP) normal AND AST or ALT ≤ 5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
  • AP ≤ 2.5 times ULN AND AST or ALT ≤ 1.5 times ULN
  • AP ≤ 5 times ULN AND AST or ALT normal

Renal

• Creatinine < 1.5 mg/dL

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for ≥ 3 months after completion of study treatment
• No peripheral neuropathy ≥ grade 2
• No active infection requiring systemic therapy
• No other malignancy within the past 5 years except adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix or any other site
• No history of severe hypersensitivity reaction to study drugs or other drugs formulated with polysorbate 80
• No other serious condition that would preclude study treatment

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• Not specified

Chemotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior taxane or gemcitabine
• At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy and recovered

Endocrine therapy

• Not specified

Radiotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy and recovered

Surgery

• See Disease Characteristics

Other

• No other concurrent therapy for this disease

The trial design was changed during accrual to allow for study continuation although response rate was lower than predicted. The trial was completed but it did not meet the specified end points.