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)