interleukin-12 in treating patients with previously treated non-hodgkin's lymphoma or hodgkin's disease

Conditions: Extranodal Marginal Zone B-cell Lymphoma of Mucosa-associated Lymphoid Tissue; Nodal Marginal Zone B-cell Lymphoma; Recurrent Adult Diffuse Large Cell Lymphoma; Recurrent Adult Diffuse Mixed Cell Lymphoma; Recurrent Adult Diffuse Small Cleaved Cell Lymphoma; Recurrent Adult Hodgkin Lymphoma; Recurrent Adult Immunoblastic Large Cell Lymphoma; Recurrent Cutaneous T-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; Recurrent Grade 1 Follicular Lymphoma; Recurrent Grade 2 Follicular Lymphoma; Recurrent Grade 3 Follicular Lymphoma; Recurrent Mantle Cell Lymphoma; Recurrent Marginal Zone Lymphoma; Recurrent Mycosis Fungoides/Sezary Syndrome; Recurrent Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma; Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma; Waldenström Macroglobulinemia

Summary: phase ii trial to study the effectiveness of interleukin-12 in treating patients with previously treated non-hodgkin's lymphoma or hodgkin's disease. interleukin-12 may kill tumor cells by stopping blood flow to the tumor and by stimulating a person's white blood cells to kill lymphoma cells.

primary objectives: i. determine the response rate of interleukin-12 in previously treated patients with non-hodgkin's lymphoma or hodgkin's disease. ii. to determine the in vivo regulatory effect of interleukin-12 on fas lingand (fasl) expression on patients' peripheral blood lymphocytes. outline: patients are stratified according to disease characteristics: low grade non-hodgkin's lymphoma (follicular small cleaved, follicular mixed, small lymphocytic, and variants) versus intermediate grade non-hodgkin's lymphoma (follicular large, diffuse large, diffuse mixed, immunoblastic, peripheral t-cell, and mantle cell) versus hodgkin's disease. patients receive interleukin-12 subcutaneously twice a week. treatment repeats every 3 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. projected accrual: a total of 36-105 patients will be accrued for this study.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * previously treated non-hodgkin's lymphoma (all histologies except lymphoblastic and burkitt's lymphoma) or hodgkin's disease * maximum of 4 previous treatment regimens * measurable disease * no cns involvement * performance status - zubrod 0-1 * performance status - karnofsky 80-100% * at least 12 weeks * platelet count at least 75,000/mm\^3 * absolute neutrophil count greater than 1500/mm\^3 * lymphocyte count greater than 500/mm\^3 * hemoglobin at least 8.0 g/dl * bilirubin less than 1.5 mg/dl * sgot/sgpt less than 2 times normal * creatinine no greater than 1.6 mg/dl * creatinine clearance at least 60 ml/min * no severe cardiovascular disease including active ischemic heart disease, congestive heart failure, or major arrhythmias * no severe pulmonary disease including dyspnea with moderate to severe exertion * hiv negative * no active infection * not pregnant or nursing * fertile patients must use adequate contraception * no clinically significant autoimmune disease (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis) * no clinically significant gastrointestinal bleeding or uncontrolled peptic ulcer * no prior allogeneic bone marrow or stem cell transplant * at least 3 weeks since prior biologic therapy for lymphoma * at least 3 weeks since prior chemotherapy for lymphoma * no concurrent steroid therapy * at least 3 weeks since prior endocrine therapy for lymphoma * at least 3 weeks since prior radiotherapy for lymphoma * at least 2 weeks since prior surgery