Sirolimus in Treating Young Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Acute Leukemia or Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Histologically confirmed diagnosis of 1 of the following:
• * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) OR acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
• * At least 25% blasts in the bone marrow
• * Recurrent or refractory disease
• * Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL)
• * Second or greater relapse as determined by physical or radiological evidence
• Disease for which there is no known curative therapy
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Age
• 21 and under
• Performance status
• Karnofsky 50-100% (patients over 10 years of age)
• Lansky 50-100% (patients 10 years of age and under)
• Life expectancy
• At least 4 weeks
• Hematopoietic
• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,000/mm\^3\*
• Platelet count at least 75,000/mm\^3 (transfusion independent)\*
• Hemoglobin at least 8.0 g/dL (may receive red blood cells (RBC) transfusions)\* NOTE: \*Patients with ALL, AML, and NHL with tumor metastatic to bone marrow, with granulocytopenia, anemia, and/or thrombocytopenia are eligible, but will not be evaluable for hematological toxicity
• Hepatic
• Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times normal
• alanine aminotransferase (ALT) no greater than 5 times normal
• Albumin at least 2 g/dL
• Renal
• Creatinine based on age, as follows:
• * No greater than 0.8 mg/dL (5 years of age and under)
• * No greater than 1.0 mg/dL (6 to 10 years of age)
• * No greater than 1.2 mg/dL (11 to 15 years of age)
• * No greater than 1.5 mg/dL (over 15 years of age) OR
• Creatinine clearance or radioisotope glomerular filtration rate at least 70 mL/min
• Cardiovascular
• Shortening fraction at least 28% by echocardiogram OR
• Ejection fraction at least 50% by gated radionuclide
• Other
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• Able to ingest oral medication
• No known allergy to sirolimus, tacrolimus, or other mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors
• No uncontrolled active infection
• * Fungal disease must be stable for at least 2 weeks prior to study entry
• * Documented negative blood cultures prior to study entry for patients with bacteremia
• No active graft-versus-host disease
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy
• Recovered from prior immunotherapy
• More than 1 week since prior hematopoietic growth factors except for epoetin alfa
• At least 7 days since prior biologic antineoplastic agents
• At least 3 months since prior bone marrow or stem cell transplantation
• Chemotherapy
• Recovered from all prior chemotherapy
• More than 2 weeks since prior myelosuppressive chemotherapy (4 weeks for nitrosoureas)
• Prior hydroxyurea within the past 2 weeks is allowed provided peripheral blast count has been stable or rising for at least 3 days
• Endocrine therapy
• Prior corticosteroids within the past 2 weeks are allowed provided peripheral blast count has been stable or rising for at least 3 days
• Radiotherapy
• Recovered from prior radiotherapy
• At least 2 weeks since prior local palliative radiotherapy
• At least 4 weeks since prior craniospinal radiotherapy or radiation to the pelvis of 50% or more
• At least 4 weeks since prior substantial bone marrow radiotherapy
• No concurrent radiotherapy, except for emergent situations or persistent extramedullary disease with resolution of bone marrow disease
• Surgery
• Not specified
• Other
• No other concurrent investigational antineoplastic drugs
• No concurrent administration of any of the following:
• * Ketoconazole
• * Tacrolimus
• * Cyclosporine
• * Rifampin
• * Diltiazem