Weekly Infusions of Paclitaxel in Treating Women With Stage III or Stage IV Ovarian Cancer Refractory to Paclitaxel and Platinum

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the objective response rate of paclitaxel given as a weekly one hour infusion in patients with paclitaxel/platinum refractory stage III and IV ovarian cancer. II. Evaluate the safety of paclitaxel in this patient population. III. Assess the overall survival in these patients. IV. Assess quality of life in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter, open label, nonrandomized study. Patients are administered paclitaxel as a one hour IV infusion every 7 days. Each cycle consists of four weeks. Treatment may be delayed for up to 2 weeks and there is no limit to the number of interruptions a patient may experience. Patients receive paclitaxel weekly until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Treatment is assessed every 3 cycles for one year and then every 6 months thereafter during study. Quality of life is assessed every cycle for the first 6 cycles, then every 3 cycles thereafter. Patients are followed every 3 months for survival. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: There will be 100 patients accrued into this study.