Immunotherapy Using Cyclosporine, Interferon Gamma, and Interleukin-2 After High-Dose Myeloablative Chemotherapy With Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Treating Patients With Refractory or Relapsed Hodgkin's Lymphoma

OBJECTIVES: Primary * Phase II * Determine the feasibility and toxicity of immunotherapy comprising cyclosporine, interferon gamma, and interleukin-2 after high-dose myeloablative chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in patients with refractory or relapsed Hodgkin's lymphoma. * Phase II part of the study was completed and should have proceeded to Phase III; however long delay occurred due to some proposed protocol changes to Phase III , so long that the study got permanently closed \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* * Phase III * Compare the event-free and overall survival of patients treated with vs without this immunotherapy regimen. Secondary * Determine the event-free and overall survival rates, toxic effects, and response rates to reinduction chemotherapy followed by hyperfractionated involved-field radiotherapy, high-dose chemotherapy comprising carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan, and ASCT in these patients. * Correlate tumor biologic characteristics with response in patients treated with these regimens. * Determine the effectiveness of this immunotherapy regimen in producing autologous graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) and auto-reactive cytotoxic T-lymphocyte activity in these patients. * Correlate greater levels of autologous GVHD and in vitro cytolytic activity with improved event-free and overall survival in patients treated with these regimens. * Determine whether treatment with immunotherapy can overcome the negative prognostic significance of p53 mutation and high serum levels of interleukin-10 and interleukin-2 receptor in these patients. * Determine the genotoxicity of retrieval therapy and the incidence of hypermutability by longitudinal genotoxic biomonitoring in these patients. * Correlate HLA class II invariant peptide (CLIP) expression in tumor cells with improved event-free and overall survival in patients treated with immunotherapy regimen. OUTLINE: This is a nonrandomized, multicenter phase II study followed by a randomized, multicenter phase III study. Patients are stratified according to study phase (II vs III). Patients receive 2 courses of salvage induction therapy on COG-AHOD00P1 or equivalent. Within 2-5 weeks after completion of salvage induction therapy, patients receive protocol therapy. * Phase II: All patients receive the following treatment: * Hyperfractionated involved-field radiotherapy: Patients who have completed prior salvage induction therapy and have not received full tissue tolerance from prior radiotherapy may receive hyperfractionated involved-field radiotherapy twice daily for 7 days. * High-dose preparative regimen: Beginning within 7 days after radiotherapy, patients receive carmustine IV over 3 hours on day -6; etoposide IV over 1 hour and cytarabine IV over 1 hour on days -5 to -2; and melphalan IV over 30 minutes on day -1. * Autologous stem cell transplantation: Patients undergo autologous bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation on day 0. Patients then receive filgrastim (G-CSF) subcutaneously (SC) or IV beginning on day 1 and continuing until blood counts recover. * Immunotherapy: Patients receive cyclosporine IV twice daily beginning on day 0 and continuing until the completion of the course of interferon gamma and interleukin-2. When sufficiently recovered, patients also receive interferon gamma SC every other day for 10 doses. Beginning 2 days after the start of interferon gamma, patients also receive interleukin-2 SC once daily for 18 days. * Phase III: Patients who respond to prior salvage induction therapy are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. Patients who have progressive disease after 2 courses of prior salvage induction therapy are assigned to arm I. * Arm I: Patients receive treatment as in phase II. * Arm II: Patients receive treatment as in phase II without immunotherapy. In both phases, treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed at 1 year. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 156 patients (25 for phase II and 131 for phase III) will be accrued for this study within 5.4 years.