Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Early-Stage Bladder Cancer

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: * Histologically confirmed recurrent superficial bladder cancer defined as papillary transitional cell carcinoma (stage Ta/T1) and/or carcinoma in situ (stage Tis) of the urinary bladder * No evidence of invasion of the underlying muscle (stage T2) at baseline * Must meet 1 of the following criteria: * Failure of at least 2 prior courses of intravesical therapy, 1 of which must have been a course of BCG * Recurrent or persistent disease within 6 months after failing a 6-week course of BCG followed by maintenance therapy * Inability or ineligibility to complete 1 course of intravesical therapy with BCG, and failure of 2 prior courses of intravesical therapy with an alternative agent * Diagnosis must have been made no more than 24 months after completion of prior treatment with intravesical immunotherapy or chemotherapy * If carcinoma in situ is current or previous diagnosis, the biopsies must be obtained from at least 4 sites (bladder mapping) * If prostatic urothelial biopsy discloses carcinoma in situ, transurethral prostatic resection must be carried out prior to study * Papillary disease must have undergone complete transurethral resection (TURBT) within 28 days before study PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: * 18 and over Performance status: * ECOG 0-1 Life expectancy: * Not specified Hematopoietic: * WBC greater than 4,000/mm\^3 * Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm\^3 Hepatic: * Bilirubin less than 2 times upper limit of norm…