APN401 in Treating Patients With Recurrent or Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, or Other Solid Tumors That Cannot Be Removed by Surgery

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients with histologically confirmed inoperable, recurrent or metastatic malignant solid tumors, deemed incurable, and who have either: * Failed to respond to standard therapy or * For whom no standard therapy is available or * Refuse to receive standard therapies * The study is intended to enroll patients with pancreatic and colorectal cancer; patients with other types of solid tumors will require approval by the principal investigator * Measurable disease as defined by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) * Patients with treated, stable, and asymptomatic brain metastases are eligible * Patients on every 3 or every 4 week systemic therapy programs must be at least 4 weeks since treatment and recovered from any clinically significant toxicity experienced; patients on weekly or daily systemic therapy programs and patients receiving radiation must be at least 1 week since treatment and recovered from any clinically significant toxicity experienced; must be at least 4 weeks and have recovered from major surgery * Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0 or 1 * White blood cells \>= 3000/uL * Platelets \>= 100,000/uL * Hematocrit \>= 28% * Creatinine =\< 1.6 mg/dL * Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) \< 2.5 x upper limit of normal * Bilirubin =\< 1.6 mg/dL (except patients with Gilbert's syndrome, who must have a total bilirubin less than 3.0 mg/dL) * Albumin \>= 3.0 g/dL * Int…