Talotrexin in Treating Young Patients With Recurrent Solid Tumors or Leukemia That is Recurrent or Does Not Respond to Treatment

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Diagnosis of either of the following:

  * Recurrent solid tumor

    * Histologically confirmed\* malignancy at original diagnosis or relapse
    * Measurable or evaluable disease
    * Lymphoma or primary CNS tumor allowed

      * Patients with CNS tumors must be on a stable or decreasing dose of dexamethasone for the past 7 days
  * Recurrent or refractory leukemia

    * Confirmed relapse, as defined by M3 marrow (25% blasts in bone marrow aspirate or biopsy)
    * Active extramedullary disease allowed provided there is no leptomeningeal involvement NOTE: \*Histological confirmation not required for intrinsic brain stem tumors
* Bone marrow metastases allowed

  * Not refractory to red blood cell or platelet transfusion
* No pleural effusion or significant ascites
* No known curative therapy or therapy proven to prolong survival with an acceptable quality of life exists
* No Down syndrome

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

* Karnofsky performance status (PS) 50-100% (for patients \> 10 years of age) OR Lansky PS 50-100% (for patients ≤ 10 years of age)
* Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,000/mm³ (for patients with solid tumors without bone marrow involvement)
* Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm³ (transfusion independent)
* Hemoglobin ≥ 8.0 g/dL
* Creatinine clearance or radioisotope glomerular filtration rate ≥ 70 mL/min OR creatinine adjusted according to age as follows:

  * No greater than 0.6 mg/dL (1 year to 23 months)
  * No greater than 0.8 mg/dL (2 to 5 years)
  * No greater than 1.0 mg/dL (6 to 9 years)
  * No greater than 1.2 mg/dL (10 to 12 years)
  * No greater than 1.4 mg/dL (13 years and over \[female\])
  * No greater than 1.5 mg/dL (13 to 15 years \[male\])
  * No greater than 1.7 mg/dL (16 years and over \[male\])
* Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
* ALT ≤ 110 U/L (ULN is 45 U/L)
* Albumin ≥ 2 g/dL
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception
* No uncontrolled infection
* No known condition that, in the opinion of the investigator, would preclude study compliance

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

* Recovered from all prior treatment-related toxicity
* At least 3 weeks since prior myelosuppressive chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosourea) (for patients with solid tumors)
* At least 24 hours since prior cytoreduction therapy initiated with hydroxyurea (for patients with leukemia)
* At least 2 weeks since prior local palliative radiotherapy (small port)
* At least 6 months since prior total-body irradiation (TBI), craniospinal radiotherapy, or ≥ 50% radiotherapy to the pelvis
* At least 6 weeks since prior substantial bone marrow radiotherapy
* At least 3 months since prior stem cell transplant or rescue without TBI

  * No evidence of active graft-versus-host disease
* At least 7 days since prior growth factor therapy
* At least 7 days since prior biological therapy
* No nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), aspirin or other salicylates, penicillins, sulfa drugs (bactrim, septra), ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, thiazide diuretics, or probenecid within 2 days prior to, during, or within 5 days after treatment with talotrexin
* No long-acting NSAIDs (e.g., nabumetone, naproxen, oxaprozin, piroxicam) within 5 days prior to, during, or within 5 days after treatment with talotrexin
* No concurrent investigational drugs
* No concurrent anticancer agents or therapy (e.g., chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, or biologic therapy)