506U78 in Treating Patients With Lymphoma

Inclusion Criteria: * Histologically documented cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) or noncutaneous peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) (needle aspirate or core biopsy of tissue or marrow as the sole means of diagnosis is not acceptable), confirmed by immunophenotyping, including: * Mycosis fungoides/Sezary syndrome * Peripheral T-Cell lymphomas (medium, mixed medium-large, large cell) * Variants of peripheral T-Cell lymphoma * Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell lymphoma (AILD); angiocentric lymphoma; intestinal T-Cell Lymphoma; adult T-Cell lymphoma/leukemia (ATLL); anaplastic Large Cell (CD30+) lymphoma, T-cell type Failure to submit pathology slides within 60 days of patient registration will result in patient being declared ineligible; Note: patients diagnosed more than one year prior to entry on this protocol must have a repeat lymph node biopsy. In the event of rapid tumor growth, rising LDH, or the onset of B symptoms in a period of time less than one year a rebiopsy is also required * Biopsy and immunophenotyping should be performed to document relapse after prior treatment * CTCL patients may have received one prior course of single-agent systemic chemotherapy for CTCL, but may not have received a multi-agent chemotherapy regimen; patients may have received prior local, topical, radiation- or electron beam-based, or chemotherapy-based treatment; examples of the latter would include, but not be limited to, cytokines such as interferon, retinoids, monoclonal antibodies, and fusion toxins * PTCL patients may have failed only one or two prior treatment regimens (one of which may include peripheral stem cell transplantation) * Patients must have measurable disease; patients with CTCL must have skin lesions which are measurable; whenever CT is specified, it should be understood that MRI may be substituted as long as the measurements for tumor response are made on two successive studies employing the same procedure * The following lesions are not considered measurable: * Barium studies * Ascites or pleural effusion * Bony disease (lesions if present should be noted) * Bone marrow * No CNS lymphoma requiring intrathecal or craniospinal radiation therapy * No history of a seizure disorder or grade 3 neurologic toxicity during prior treatment of lymphoma. Baseline neurologic status of all eligible patients is to be carefully recorded (particularly in elderly patients and those with conditions potentially predisposed to neurotoxicity, such as diabetes mellitus and prior exposure to neurotoxic agents); patients with prior neurologic dysfunction or toxicity from any cause must have recovered to grade 1 neurologic toxicity/dysfunction * Performance status 0-2 * No known HIV disease; patients with a history of intravenous drug abuse or any other behavior associated with an increased risk of HIV infection should be tested for exposure to the HIV virus; patients who test positive or who are known to be infected are not eligible; an HIV test is not required for entry on protocol, but is required if the patient is perceived to be at risk * Calculated Creatinine Clearance \>= 50 ml/min * Unless attributable to lymphoma * To be calculated by method of Cockcroft-Gault * Bilirubin \>= 1.5 x upper limit of normal * Patients with hepatic dysfunction should enroll on CALGB 69803