RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy 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 clinical trial is studying how well combination chemotherapy works in treating older patients with solid tumour.

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• To determine a prognostic scale of the feasibility of chemotherapy (at least two-thirds of the dose intensity usually administered) in patients aged 75 years or older with solid tumour.

Secondary

• To evaluate the efficacy, in terms of clinical and/or biological response, of treatments administered.
• To evaluate the incidence of severe (grade 3-4) toxicity.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients receive one of the following regimens according to cancer diagnosis and principal investigator preference. All regimens last 3 months.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed solid tumour regardless of localization or stage

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• > or = 75 years
• patient planned to receive > or = 2/3 of standard dose of the first cycle

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Chemonaive patient.