RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of liposomal doxorubicin in treating patients with liver or bile duct cancer.

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the response rate and toxicity of doxorubicin HCl liposome in patients with carcinomas of the liver and bile ducts.

PROTOCOL OUTLINE: Patients receive doxorubicin HCl liposome IV over 15 minutes every 21 days. Filgrastim (G-CSF) is administered subcutaneously starting on day 2 and continuing for 10-14 days. Disease is restaged after every 3 courses. Treatment continues in the absence of unacceptable toxicity or disease progression.

Patients are followed every 3 months for the first year, and then every 6 months thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: There will be 17-26 evaluable patients accrued into this study.

Ages Eligible for Study:  18 Years and above

Criteria

PROTOCOL ENTRY CRITERIA:

--Disease Characteristics--

• Histologically confirmed carcinoma of the liver or bile ducts including hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, and gallbladder cancer
• Measurable or evaluable disease by CT scan (ascites, pleural effusions, and bone metastases are not considered evaluable)

--Prior/Concurrent Therapy--

• Biologic therapy: Not specified
• Chemotherapy: No prior doxorubicin; At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy
• Endocrine therapy: Not specified
• Radiotherapy: Prior radiotherapy allowed
• Surgery: Not specified

--Patient Characteristics--

• Age: 18 and over
• Performance status: ECOG 0-2
• Life expectancy: Not specified
• Hematopoietic: WBC at least 3,000/mm3; Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3
• Hepatic: Bilirubin less than 3 mg/dL; No severe cirrhosis
• Renal: Creatinine no greater than 3.0 mg/dL
• Cardiovascular: Left ventricular cardiac ejection fraction at least 45%
• Other: No allergy to egg or egg products; Not pregnant or nursing; Effective contraception required of all fertile patients