Colony-Stimulating Factors in Treating Children With Recurrent or Refractory Solid Tumors

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically proven (except for brain stem tumors) malignancy that has failed or relapsed after standard first-line antineoplastic therapy * Sarcoma (soft tissue and bone) * Kidney tumors * Brain tumors * Other solid tumors (gonadal and germ cell tumors, malignant melanoma, * retinoblastoma, liver tumors, and miscellaneous tumors) Must have had recurrence within the past 4 weeks No bone marrow involvement No prior or concurrent myelogenous leukemia PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: * 1 to 21 Performance status: * Lansky or Karnofsky 60-100% Life expectancy: * At least 12 weeks Hematopoietic: * Absolute neutrophil count greater than 1000/mm3 * Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm3 * No grade III or IV thrombosis Hepatic: * Bilirubin less than 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN) * SGOT or SGPT less than 2.5 times ULN Renal: * Creatinine clearance or glomerular filtration rate at least 70 mL/min Cardiovascular: * Ejection fraction normal * No evidence of arrhythmias requiring therapy * Fractional shortening greater than 28% Other: * Not pregnant or nursing PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: * At least 10 days since prior colony-stimulating factor therapy and recovered * At least 30 days since prior epoetin alfa * No other concurrent cytokines, including epoetin alfa Chemotherapy: * At least 3 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas) and * recovered * At least 3 months since therapy with etoposide, car…