Belinostat in Treating Patients With Liver Cancer That Cannot Be Removed By Surgery

Inclusion Criteria: Histologically or cytologically confirmed hepatocellular carcinoma that is not amenable to curative resection Measurable disease, defined as ≥ 1 lesion that can be accurately measured in ≥ 1 dimension (longest diameter to be recorded) as ≥ 20 mm with conventional techniques OR as ≥ 10 mm with MRI or spiral CT scan No known brain metastases No clinical ascites or encephalopathy Life expectancy > 12 weeks ECOG performance status (PS) 0-2 or Karnofsky PS 60-100% WBC ≥ 3,000/mm³ Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,500/mm³ Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm³ Bilirubin ≤ 1.7 mg/dL Albumin ≥ 2.8 mg/dL ALT ≤ 5.0 times upper limit of normal (ULN) Alkaline phosphatase ≤ 6 times ULN Prothrombin time ≤ 4 sec above ULN Creatinine ≤ 1.6 mg/dL Not pregnant or nursing Negative pregnancy test Fertile patients use effective contraception No Child's-Pugh's grading Class C hepatic impairment No history of allergic reaction attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to PXD101 No marked baseline prolongation of QT/QTc interval, including the following: Repeated demonstration of a QTc interval > 500 msec Long QT Syndrome No ongoing or active infection No significant cardiovascular disease, including any of the following: Unstable angina pectoris Uncontrolled hypertension Congestive heart failure related to primary cardiac disease Condition requiring anti-arrhythmic therapy Ischemic or severe valvular heart disease Myocardial infarction within the past 6 months No psychiatric illness or social situation that would preclude study compliance No other uncontrolled illness More than 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas or mitomycin C) and recovered More than 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy and recovered At least 2 weeks since prior valproic acid No concurrent combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV-positive patients No concurrent participation in another investigational study No other concurrent investigational agents No other concurrent anticancer therapy No concurrent use of any of the following: Disopyramide Dofetilide Ibutilide Procainamide Quinidine Sotalol Bepridil Amiodarone Arsenic trioxide Cisapride Calcium channel blockers (e.g., lidoflazine) Clarithromycin Erythromycin Halofantrine Pentamidine Sparfloxacin Domperidone Droperidol Chlorpromazine Haloperidol Mesoridazine Thioridazine Pimozide Methadone