RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as pemetrexed disodium, use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Pemetrexed disodium may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking the enzymes necessary for their growth. PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best dose of pemetrexed disodium in treating young patients with recurrent solid tumors.
Name: pemetrexed disodium
Description: Any patient who experiences DLT at any time during protocol therapy will be considered evaluable for toxicity. Patients not experiencing DLT must complete a full cycle of therapy to be considered potentially evaluable for toxicity. Patients who are not evaluable for toxicity will be replaced.
Measure: Dose Limiting Toxicity Time: Length of studyDescription: The MTD will be that dose at which fewer than one-third of patients experience DLT
Measure: Maximum Tolerated Dose Time: Length of studyThere is one SNP
- Correlate the presence of the C677T polymorphism of the methylenetetrahydrolate reductase gene, the presence of a polymorphism in the enhancer region of the thymidylate synthase (TS) gene promoter (2R and 3R tandem repeats), the presence of a polymorphism within one of those repeats, and the presence of a functional polymorphism in the 3'-untranslated region with toxicity in patients treated with this drug. --- C677T ---