DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically or cytologically confirmed renal cell carcinoma (RCC)

  • Metastatic disease OR unresectable primary tumor

    • Patients with metastatic disease who have a resectable primary tumor and are deemed a surgical candidate may have undergone prior resection

• Received ≥ 1 prior therapy and meets 1 of the following criteria:

  • Discontinued therapy due to toxicity
  • Evidence of disease progression after therapy

• Measurable disease, defined as ≥ 1 lesion that can be accurately measured in ≥ 1 dimension

  • Soft tissue disease that has been irradiated in the past 2 months is not assessable as measurable disease

    • Soft tissue disease within a prior irradiated field must have progressed to be considered assessable
    • Patients must also have measurable disease outside of the irradiated field

• No prior or concurrent brain metastases (treated or untreated)

  • Patients with clinical concern for brain metastases must have a negative brain CT scan or MRI within the past 56 days

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• ECOG performance status 0-2
• Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm³
• Absolute granulocyte count ≥ 1,500/mm³
• Hemoglobin ≥ 9 g/dL
• SGOT and SGPT ≤ 2.5 times upper limit of normal
• Bilirubin < 2 mg/dL
• Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL OR creatinine clearance ≥ 40 mL/min
• Corrected QT interval < 0.47 seconds
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No psychiatric illness or social situation that would preclude study compliance

• No uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, any of the following:

  • Ongoing or active infection
  • Symptomatic congestive heart failure
  • Unstable angina pectoris
  • Cardiac arrhythmia

• No other prior malignancy, except for the following:

  • Adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer
  • Adequately treated stage I or II cancer for which patient is currently in complete remission
  • Any other cancer for which patient has been disease free for 5 years
• No history of allergic reaction attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biological composition to study drug

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior tubule, DNA, or mitosis-targeting agents for RCC
• At least 28 days since prior surgery and recovered
• At least 28 days since prior antiangiogenesis agents or immunotherapy comprising interferon and/or aldesleukin and recovered
• At least 21 days since prior radiotherapy and recovered
• More than 28 days since prior investigational agents
• More than 6 months since prior and no concurrent amiodarone

• More than 14 days since prior and no concurrent inhibitors or inducers of CYP3A4, including any of the following:

  • Rifapentine
  • Rifabutin
  • Rifampin
  • Troleandomycin
  • Erythromycin
  • Clarithromycin
  • Itraconazole
  • Ketoconazole
  • Voriconazole
  • Fluconazole (doses > 200 mg/day)
  • Nefazodone
  • Fluvoxamine
  • Verapamil
  • Diltiazem
  • Bitter orange
  • Phenytoin
  • Carbamazepine
  • Phenobarbital
  • Oxcarbazepine
  • Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort)
  • Modafinil
• No concurrent colony-stimulating factors
• No other concurrent investigational agents during and for ≥ 14 days after the last dose of study drug or after post-treatment blood draws are completed, whichever is earlier
• No concurrent combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV-positive patients