Study of Fixed vs. Flexible Filgrastim to Accelerate Bone Marrow Recovery After Chemotherapy in Children With Cancer

Inclusion Criteria:

* Subjects must have or have had at initial diagnosis, histologic proof of their malignancy; young children with primary embryonal brain tumor treated according to Head Start protocol are eligible; subjects with bone marrow involvement are NOT eligible for study
* Patients will receive repeated cycles of identical chemotherapy that will likely result in grades III-IV hematological toxicity; patients will be treated outside of Children's Oncology Group (COG) protocols with specific requirements for schedule of G-CSF administration; the following categories of patients treated at Children's Hospital of Michigan are eligible for this study:

  * Patients with brain tumors treated according to Head Start II protocol with vincristine, etoposide, cyclophosphamide, and cisplatin (OPEC) chemotherapy;
  * Patients with recurrent Hodgkin lymphoma treated with ICE (ifosfamide, carboplatin, etoposide) chemotherapy;
  * Patients with recurrent solid tumors including sarcomas, Wilms' tumor, neuroblastomas, or brain tumors treated with high dose ICE or ICT (ifosfamide, carboplatin, topotecan) chemotherapy
  * Patients with UH Wilms' tumor treated with CE (cyclophosphamide, etoposide); patients with neuroblastoma treated with CE (carboplatin, etoposide);
  * Patients with soft tissue sarcomas treated with IA (ifosfamide, doxorubicin);
  * Patients with osteosarcoma treated with high dose ifosfamide
* Subjects must have fully recovered from the toxic effects of any prior therapy; at least 3 weeks should have elapsed since the last dose of chemotherapy (6 weeks in the case of nitrosourea containing therapy); subjects must have recovered from previous colony-stimulating factor therapy and have been off colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF, granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor \[GM-CSF\], interleukin \[IL\]-11) for more than 10 days and off erythropoietin for 30 days
* ANC \> 1000/uL
* Platelet count \> 100,000/uL
* Creatinine clearance or glomerular filtration rate (GFR) which is greater than or equal to 70 ml/min/1.73 m\^2
* Bilirubin less than 1.5 x normal limit (NL)
* Serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) or serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) less than 2.5 x NL for age
* Subjects should have a normal ejection fraction (per institutional limits), no evidence of cardiac arrhythmias requiring therapy, and a fractional shortening of \> 28%
* All subjects must have a life expectancy of 12 weeks or more
* Diagnostic categories

  * Sarcoma (soft tissue and bone)
  * Kidney tumors
  * Brain tumors
  * Other solid tumors (gonadal and germ cell tumors, retinoblastoma, neuroblastoma, and miscellaneous tumors)
  * Hodgkin lymphoma
* Performance status must be \> 60 from Lansky (age 1 to 16) or Karnofsky (age \> 16)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Subjects with any of the following will NOT be eligible for study:

  * Bone marrow involvement
  * Active myelogenous leukemia, or history of myelogenous leukemia
  * Pregnancy