Testing the Use of Nilotinib and Paclitaxel as a Treatment for Patients With Prior Taxane Treatment, A ComboMATCH Treatment Trial

Inclusion criteria

* Patient must be enrolled on the ComboMATCH registration protocol (EAY191) at the time of registration to the EAY191-E4 study * Patient must be \>= 18 years of age * Patient must not have any of the following mutations (as determined by the ComboMATCH registration protocol), which are known to confer sensitivity or resistance to nilotinib monotherapy: * KIT: W557R, V559D, V559A, L576P, and K642E * PDGFR-alpha: D842V * Patient must have disease that can be safely biopsied and agree to a pre-treatment biopsy or have archival tissue available from within 12 months prior to the date of registration on the ComboMATCH registration trial (EAY191) * NOTE: The current actionable mutation of interest (aMOI)/actionable alteration list for this treatment trial can be found on the Cancer Trials Support Unit (CTSU) website * NOTE: Novel/dynamic aMOI can be submitted for review per the process described in the ComboMATCH registration protocol * Patient must be willing to provide blood samples for research purposes * Patient must have had at least one prior line of therapy in the metastatic setting * Patient must have previously undergone taxane therapy (in the metastatic setting) * Patients who previously responded to prior taxane therapy must have received their last dose of taxane therapy within 6 months prior to EAY191-E4 registration and have had no other intervening treatment prior to EAY191-E4 registration * Patients who did not respond to prior taxane therapy are eligible regardless of the time elapsed since the prior taxane therapy or any other intervening therapies * Patient must have an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-2 * Patient must not have had platinum-resistant epithelial serous ovarian cancer * Patients must not have neuropathy \>= grade 2 within 14 days of registration/randomization * Patient must have documented QT interval with Fridericia's correction (QTcF) of =\< 450 msec within 8 days prior to EAY191-E4 registration. Patients with a QTcF interval of \>= 450 msec at registration or patients with congenital long QT syndrome are not eligible * Patient must not be pregnant or breast-feeding due to the potential harm to an unborn fetus and possible risk for adverse events in nursing infants with the treatment regimens being used * All patients of childbearing potential must have a blood test or urine study within 14 days prior to registration to rule out pregnancy * A patient of childbearing potential is defined as anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or whether they have undergone tubal ligation, who meets the following criteria: 1) has achieved menarche at some point, 2) has not undergone a hysterectomy or bilateral oophorectomy; or 3) has not been naturally postmenopausal (amenorrhea following cancer therapy does not rule out childbearing potential) for at least 24 consecutive months (i.e., has had menses at any time in the preceding 24 consecutive months) * Patient must not expect to conceive or father children by using accepted and effective method(s) of contraception or by abstaining from sexual intercourse for the duration of their participation in the study and for at least 3 months after the last dose of study drug * Patients must have progressive disease * Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) \>= 1,500/mcL * Platelets \>= 100,000/mcL * Total bilirubin =\< 1.5 x institutional upper limit of normal (ULN) (with the exception of those with Gilbert syndrome, who must have total bilirubin =\< 3 x institutional ULN) * Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase \[SGOT\])/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase \[SGPT\]) =\< 3 institutional upper limit of normal; \< 5.0 x ULN in patients with liver metastases * Creatinine clearance \> 60 mL/min/1.73 m\^2 for patients with creatinine levels \> 1.5 mg/dL * Patient must have the ability to swallow medications * Patient must have completed any prior therapy ≥ 4 weeks or ≥ 5 half-lives of the prior agent (whichever is shorter) prior to enrollment on protocol. Prior definitive radiation should have been completed ≥ 4 weeks prior to enrollment; prior palliative radiation should have been completed ≥ 2 weeks prior to enrollment. Patients must be ≥ 2 weeks since any investigational agent administered as part of a phase 0 study (where a sub-therapeutic dose of drug is administered) and should have recovered to grade 1 or baseline from any toxicities * Patients with treated brain metastases are eligible if follow-up brain imaging after central nervous system (CNS)-directed therapy shows no evidence of progression for ≥ 1 month after treatment of the brain metastases