Arsenic Trioxide in Treating Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Lymphoma or Leukemia

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients must have a diagnosis of relapsed or refractory low-grade lymphoma * Patients must have disease that has relapsed from or is refractory to standard cytotoxic therapy; patients must have received at least one standard cytotoxic drug regimen; there is no limit on the number of prior therapies, including high dose chemotherapy regimens, provided the patient has recovered from prior toxicities; relapsed disease is defined as the development of lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly, malignant lymphocytosis greater than 5,000, or infiltration of the bone marrow with malignant lymphocytes in a patient who had previously achieved a response of at least six months in duration; refractory disease is defined as never achieving a PR or a CR or PR that is less than six months in duration; prior total body irradiation is not allowed; radiation to individual site is permitted, and is not included as a regimen * Serum creatinine =\< 2.0 mg/dl * Total bilirubin =\< 2.0 mg/dl * Serum SGOT, SGPT =\< 2.5 times the upper limit of institutional normal * Patients who are female and have childbearing potential must have a negative pregnancy test; all patients who are engaging in sexual intercourse that may result in a pregnancy must use appropriate contraception while receiving treatment on this protocol * Patients must have sufficient mental capacity to understand the explanation of the study and to give his or her informed signed consent * Patients must display Karnofsky performance status of 60% or greater * Patients should have a life expectancy of \> 12 weeks so as to permit adequate follow-up of toxicity * Patients must have recovered from the toxicity of recent therapy prior to enrollment in this study * Absolute neutrophil count \> 1500/uL, unless cytopenias are the result of bone marrow infiltration by lymphoma; permission of the protocol PI is required in this situation * Platelet count \> 75,000/uL, unless cytopenias are the result of bone marrow infiltration by lymphoma; permission of the protocol PI is required in this situation; patients with thrombocytopenia secondary to active ITP or anemia secondary to an active autoimmune hemolytic anemia at the time of evaluation are excluded Exclusion Criteria: * Pregnant or lactating women; arsenic compounds could be transferred to the fetus or child with resultant harm * Concurrent treatment with cytotoxic chemotherapy, radiation or investigational agents; this exclusion does not include concurrent glucocorticoids fro brief durations; patients must have recovered from the toxicity of prior therapy prior to enrollment in this study * Active serious infections not controlled by antibiotics * Inability to comply with the treatment protocol or follow-up testing * Patients with HIV infection; there are currently insufficient data to support the safety of administering arsenic compounds in combination with anti-retroviral drugs * Patients with active viral or autoimmune hepatitis * Patients with history of cardiac arrhythmia, heart block, or myocardial infarction within the past 6 months * Patients with known CNS disease * Patients requiring amphotericin B therapy * Patients with significant peripheral neuropathy (\>= grade 3), regardless of cause