DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed* solid tumor, including any of the following:

  • Ewing's sarcoma/peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET)
  • Osteosarcoma
  • Rhabdomyosarcoma
  • Neuroblastoma
  • High-grade astrocytoma
  • Low-grade astrocytoma
  • Glioblastoma multiforme
  • Ependymoma
  • Hepatoblastoma
  • Germ cell tumors of any site

  • Rare tumors of interest, including any of the following:

    • Soft tissue sarcoma
    • Hepatocellular carcinoma
    • Childhood/adolescent colorectal carcinoma
    • Childhood/adolescent renal cell carcinoma
    • Childhood/adolescent adrenocortical carcinoma
    • Childhood/adolescent nasopharyngeal carcinoma NOTE: *Histologic confirmation not required for brain stem tumors and visual pathway gliomas
• Recurrent disease OR refractory to conventional therapy
• Measurable disease by clinical exam, CT scan, MRI, or positron emission tomography

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 21 and under at original diagnosis

Performance status

• Karnofsky 50-100% (for patients over age 10) OR
• Lansky 50-100% (for patients age 10 and under)

Life expectancy

• At least 8 weeks

Hematopoietic

• Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,000/mm^3*
• Platelet count ≥ 75,000/mm^3* (transfusion independent)
• Hemoglobin ≥ 8.0 g/dL* (RBC transfusions allowed)
• Granulocytopenia, anemia, and/or thrombocytopenia due to bone marrow metastases or extensive prior radiotherapy allowed provided the above hematological criteria are met NOTE: *For patients without bone marrow involvement, including patients who underwent SCT

Hepatic

• Bilirubin ≤ 3 mg/dL

Renal

• Creatinine based on age as follows:

  • ≤ .8 mg/dL (for patients age 5 and under)
  • ≤ 1.0 mg/dL (for patients age 6 to 10)
  • ≤ 1.2 mg/dL (for patients age 11 to 15)
  • ≤1.5 mg/dL (for patients age 16 to 21) OR
• Creatinine clearance or radioisotope glomerular filtration rate > 20 mL/min

Other

• No uncontrolled seizure disorder
• No uncontrolled infection
• CNS toxicity ≤ grade 2
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• Recovered from prior immunotherapy
• At least 7 days since prior anticancer biologic therapy
• More than 1 week since prior growth factors

• At least 6 months since prior allogeneic stem cell transplantation

  • No evidence of active graft-vs-host disease
• No concurrent immunomodulating agents

Chemotherapy

• Recovered from prior chemotherapy
• No prior oxaliplatin
• Prior carboplatin or cisplatin allowed
• More than 3 weeks since prior myelosuppressive chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas)
• No other concurrent anticancer chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

• Concurrent dexamethasone for CNS tumors allowed provided patient has been on a stable or decreasing dose for ≥ 1 week before study entry

Radiotherapy

• Recovered from prior radiotherapy
• At least 2 weeks since prior local palliative radiotherapy (small port)
• At least 6 months since prior craniospinal radiotherapy
• At least 6 months since prior radiotherapy to ≥ 50% of the pelvis
• At least 6 weeks since other prior substantial radiotherapy to the bone marrow
• Concurrent radiotherapy to localized painful lesions allowed provided ≥ 1 measurable lesion is not irradiated

Surgery

• Not specified

Other

• No other concurrent investigational agents
• No other concurrent anticancer agents