Fludarabine Phosphate, Melphalan, and Low-Dose Total-Body Irradiation Followed by Donor Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplant in Treating Patients With Hematologic Malignancies

First remission lymphoblastic lymphoma, or small, non-cleaved cell lymphoma or mantle cell lymphoma

HODGKIN LYMPHOMA:

Received and failed front-line therapy

single antigen mismatch at HLA A, B, or DRB1; unrelated donors

a single antigen mismatch at HLA A, B, or C, +/- additional single allele level mismatch at A, B, V or DRB1

Minimum goal for peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) dose is 2 x 10\^6 CD34+ cells/kg of recipient weight; minimum goal for the marrow dose is 1 x 10\^8 nucleated cells/kg of recipient weight

No serious uncontrolled psychiatric illness

No concomitant active malignancy that would be expected to require chemotherapy within 3 years of transplant (other than non-melanoma skin cancer)

Non-pregnant and non-nursing woman; (women or men with reproductive potential should agree to use an effective means of birth control)

Patients who have failed a prior autologous or allogeneic transplant are eligible; however, at least 90 days must have elapsed between the start of this reduced intensity conditioning regimen and the last transplant if patient had a prior autologous or myeloablative allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT)

At least 2 weeks since prior chemotherapy, radiation treatment and/or surgery

Informed consent

DONOR: Compatibility at the four most informative HLA loci:

A, B, C and DRB1 are important for reducing the risk of GVHD and successful transplant outcomes; the A, B, C and DRB1 loci comprise 8 possible alleles (a haplotype being inherited from each parent); one additional locus, HLA-DQ, is also typed to ascertain haplotypes and assist in the search for a compatible donor; however mismatching at DQ has not been shown to be associated with adverse outcomes; high resolution molecular typing (at the allele level) is now the standard of care for unrelated donor searches and allows greater refinement of the search strategy

DONOR: Matched related donor:

a single antigen mismatch at A, B, or the DR transplant from a family member is associated with a higher risk of GVHD but similar overall survival when compared to full identity at these 3 regions; related donor/recipient pairs must be matched at 5 of 6 HLA antigens (A, B, DRB1)

DONOR: Unrelated Donor:

Uncontrolled central nervous system (CNS) disease (for hematologic malignancies)

Karnofsky (adult) or Lansky (for =\< 16 years) performance status \< 50%

Diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) \< 40% predicted, corrected for hemoglobin and/or alveolar ventilation

Left ventricular ejection fraction \< 40% - Bilirubin \>= 3 X upper limit of normal

Liver alkaline phosphatase \>= 3 x upper limit of normal

Serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) or serum glutamic pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) \>= 3 x upper limit of normal

Child's class B and C liver failure

Calculated creatinine clearance \< 40 cc/min by the modified Cockroft-Gault formula for adults or the Schwartz formula for pediatrics

Patients who have received maximally allowed doses (given in 2 Gy fractionations, or equivalent) of previous radiation therapy to various organs as follows: \* Mediastinum: adult -40, pediatric (=\<18 yrs) - 21 \* Heart: adult 36, pediatric - 26 \* Whole lung(s): adult - 12, pediatric - 10 \* Small bowel: adult - 46, pediatric - 40 \* Kidneys: adult - 12, pediatric - 10 \* Whole liver: adult - 20, pediatric - 20 \* Spinal cord: adult - 36, pediatric - 36 \* Whole Brain: adult 30, pediatric - 30

Patients who previously have received a higher than allowed dose of radiation to a small lung, liver, and brain volume, will be evaluated by the radiation oncologist to determine if the patient is eligible for study

Uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, active serious infection or other condition which, in the opinion of treating physician, would make this protocol unreasonably hazardous for the patient

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive

Patients who in the opinion of the treating physician are unlikely to comply with the restrictions of allogeneic stem cell transplantation based on formal psychosocial screening

Female of childbearing potential with a positive pregnancy test

What this study is about