Vorinostat After Stem Cell Transplant in Treating Patients With High-Risk Lymphoma

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Must have received a BEAM (cytarabine, etoposide, melphalan, carmustine)-conditioned autologous stem cell transplantation for any of the following high-risk lymphomas:

  * Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma as defined by:

    * Induction failure but with response to salvage therapy
    * Relapse less than one year after completion of induction therapy
    * Elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) at relapse
    * Stage III/IV disease at relapse
    * Positive PET scan after induction or salvage therapy
    * Age ≤ 75 and ≥ 60 years
  * Follicular lymphoma as defined by:

    * Progressive disease after two or more prior regimens
    * Transformed to aggressive lymphoma but still chemotherapy sensitive
    * Not felt to be a good candidate for an allogeneic transplantation
  * Hodgkin lymphoma as defined by:

    * Primary refractory disease
    * Relapse less than one year after completion of induction therapy
    * Relapse with PET-positive disease after salvage therapy
    * Relapsed refractory and not felt to be a good candidate for an allogeneic transplantation
  * Mantle cell lymphoma

    * Chemotherapy-sensitive disease after induction therapy
    * Chemotherapy-sensitive relapsed disease and not felt to be a good candidate for an allogeneic transplantation
  * T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)

    * Peripheral T-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified and one or more of the following at diagnosis:

      * High LDH
      * Marrow involvement
      * Age \> 60 years
      * Low platelet count
      * Relapsed chemotherapy-sensitive disease
    * Angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy with dysproteinemia
    * Anaplastic lymphoma kinase-negative anaplastic NHL
    * Enteropathy-associated T-cell NHL
    * Natural killer (NK)/T-cell NHL and stage III/IV disease at diagnosis
    * NK blastic NHL

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

* ECOG (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) /WHO performance status 0-2
* ANC (absolute neutrophil count) ≥ 1,000/μL
* Platelet count ≥ 75,000/μL
* Total bilirubin ≤ 1.5 mg/dL
* AST (aspartate aminotransferase)/ALT (Alanine transaminase) ≤ 2 x upper limit of normal (ULN)
* Serum creatinine ≤ 1.5 x ULN OR creatinine clearance ≥ 50 mL/min
* No severe or uncontrolled systemic illness
* Patients must be able to swallow capsules
* Negative pregnancy test
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Fertile patients must use at least two adequate barrier methods of contraception during study and for 90 days after completion of study therapy
* No other malignancy within the past 5 years other than nonmelanoma skin cancer, carcinoma in situ of the cervix, or a malignancy considered by their physician to be at less than 30% risk of relapse
* No congenital long QT syndrome
* No significant history of uncontrolled cardiac disease (i.e., uncontrolled hypertension, unstable angina, myocardial infarction within the past 6 months, or uncontrolled congestive heart failure)
* No active bacterial, fungal, or viral infection
* No known HIV infection
* No active hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C infection
* No other medical condition, including mental illness or substance abuse, deemed by the Investigator(s) to interfere with a patient's ability to sign informed consent, cooperate and participate in the study, or interfere with the interpretation of the results

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

* Recovered from the majority of the toxicities from the autologous transplantation (must have returned to their pretransplant baseline or have no greater than grade I extramedullary toxicity Common Toxicity Criteria for Adverse Effects\[CTCAE 3.0\])
* No prior treatment with a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor (e.g., depsipeptide, MS-275, LAQ-824, belinostat, valproic acid)
* More than 4 weeks since prior and no concurrent class Ia, Ib, or Ic antiarrhythmic drugs
* No other concurrent antineoplastic chemotherapy or biologic therapy
* No concurrent radiotherapy, unless for local control of bone pain

  * Irradiated area for pain management should be as small as possible and lesions within the irradiated field cannot be used for response
* No concurrent use of complementary or alternative medicines that would confound the interpretation of toxicities and antitumor activity of vorinostat (SAHA)