Vorinostat With or Without Isotretinoin in Treating Young Patients With Recurrent or Refractory Solid Tumors, Lymphoma, or Leukemia

Inclusion Criteria:

* Histologically confirmed\* diagnosis of 1 of the following:

  * Recurrent or refractory solid tumor or lymphoma (for patients in group 1)

    * Measurable or evaluable disease
  * Recurrent or refractory leukemia (for patients in group 2)

    * Greater than 25% blasts in the bone marrow (i.e., M3 bone marrow)
    * Active extramedullary disease allowed except leptomeningeal disease
  * Recurrent or refractory CNS tumor of 1 of the following types (for patients in group 3):

    * Neuroblastoma
    * Medulloblastoma/CNS primitive neuroectodermal tumor
    * Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor
* No known curative therapy or therapy proven to prolong survival with an acceptable quality of life exists
* No bone marrow involvement by disease (for patients in groups 1 and 3)
* No active CNS leukemia
* Performance status - Lansky 50-100% (for patients ≤ 10 years of age)
* Performance status - Karnofsky 60-100% (for patients \> 10 years of age)
* Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,000/mm\^3 (for solid tumor patients)
* Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm\^3\* (for solid tumor patients) (20,000/mm\^3\*\* for leukemia patients)
* Hemoglobin ≥ 8.0 g/dL (RBC transfusion allowed) (for solid tumor and leukemia patients)
* Triglycerides \< 300 mg/dL (for patients in group 3)
* Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
* ALT ≤ 5 times ULN
* Albumin ≥ 2 g/dL
* Creatinine clearance or radioisotope glomerular filtration rate ≥ 70 mL/min
* Creatinine based on age as follows:

  * No greater than 0.8 mg/dL (for patients ≤ 5 years of age)
  * No greater than 1.0 mg/dL (for patients 6 to 10 years of age)
  * No greater than 1.2 mg/dL (for patients 11 to 15 years of age)
  * No greater than 1.5 mg/dL (for patients over 15 years of age)
* Negative dipstick for protein OR \< 1,000 mg protein/24 hour urine collection (for patients in group 3)
* No evidence of gross hematuria (for patients in group 3)
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception
* Body surface area ≥ 0.5 m\^2
* Neurologic deficits in patients with CNS tumors must be stable for ≥ 1 week before study entry
* Able to swallow whole capsules
* No uncontrolled infection
* Skin toxicity \< grade 1 (for patients in group 3)
* Recovered from prior immunotherapy
* At least 7 days since prior hematopoietic growth factors
* At least 7 days since prior antineoplastic biologic agents
* At least 2 months since prior stem cell transplantation or rescue

  * No evidence of active graft-versus-host disease
* No other concurrent biologic therapy or immunotherapy
* More than 3 weeks since prior myelosuppressive chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas) and recovered
* No concurrent chemotherapy
* Patients with CNS tumors must be on a stable or decreasing dose of dexamethasone for ≥ 7 days prior to study entry
* No concurrent dexamethasone for antinausea or antiemetic therapy
* Recovered from prior radiotherapy
* At least 2 weeks since prior local, palliative, small-port radiotherapy
* At least 3 months since prior total-body irradiation, radiotherapy to the craniospinal area, or radiotherapy to ≥ 50% of the pelvis
* At least 6 weeks since other prior substantial radiotherapy to the bone marrow
* No concurrent radiotherapy
* At least 2 weeks since prior valproic acid
* No other concurrent investigational agents
* No other concurrent anticancer therapy
* No concurrent enzyme-inducing anticonvulsants