17-N-Allylamino-17-Demethoxygeldanamycin in Treating Young Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Solid Tumors or Leukemia

Inclusion Criteria:

* Histologically confirmed diagnosis of solid tumor or leukemia with documented M3 marrow

  * Histologic confirmation of intrinsic brain stem tumors not required
* Relapsed or refractory disease
* No known curative therapy
* In patients with CNS tumors, neurologic deficits must be stable for at least the past week
* Performance status - Karnofsky 50-100% (\>10 years of age)
* Performance status - Lansky 50-100% (≤ 10 years of age)
* For patients with solid tumors:

  * Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,000/mm\^3
  * Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm\^3 (transfusion independent)
  * Hemoglobin ≥ 8.0 g/dL (may receive RBC transfusions)
* For patients with leukemia:

  * Platelet count ≥ 20,000/mm\^3 (may receive platelet transfusions)
  * Hemoglobin ≥ 8.0 g/dL (may receive RBC transfusions)
* Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
* ALT ≤ 2.5 times ULN
* Albumin ≥ 2 g/dL
* Creatinine clearance OR radioisotope glomerular filtration rate ≥ 70 mL/min
* Creatinine based on age as follows:

  * ≤ 0.8 mg/dL if ≤ 5 years of age
  * ≤ 1.0 mg/dL if \> 5 years and ≤ 10 years of age
  * ≤ 1.2 mg/dL if \> 10 years and ≤ 15 years of age
  * ≤ 1.5 mg/dL if \> 15 years and ≤ 21 years of age
* No uncontrolled infection
* No prior severe allergy to eggs
* No situation that would preclude study participation
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception
* At least 7 days (or window for adverse effects has passed) since prior biologic therapy and recovered
* At least 7 days since prior hematopoietic growth factors
* At least 2 months since prior stem cell transplantation and no evidence of graft-vs-host disease
* No concurrent hematopoietic growth factors
* No concurrent biologic therapy
* No concurrent immunotherapy
* At least 3 weeks since prior myelosuppressive chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas) and recovered
* No other concurrent chemotherapy
* No concurrent steroid therapy
* At least 2 weeks since prior local palliative radiotherapy (small port)
* At least 3 months since prior total body irradiation or craniospinal radiotherapy
* At least 3 months since prior radiotherapy to ≥ 50% of the pelvis
* At least 6 weeks since prior substantial bone marrow radiotherapy
* Recovered from prior radiotherapy
* No concurrent radiotherapy
* No other concurrent investigational drugs
* No other concurrent anticancer agents
* No concurrent phenytoin or phenobarbital
* No concurrent warfarin