Alisertib With and Without Rituximab in Treating Patients With Relapsed or Refractory B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine the efficacy of MLN8237 (alisertib) alone in patients with relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and transformed NHL. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine the efficacy of MLN8237 when combined with rituximab in NHL patients who fail to respond to MLN8237 alone in patients with relapsed and refractory NHL and transformed NHL. II. To determine specific toxicities associated with MLN8237 alone and when combined with rituximab (in NHL patients) in patients with relapsed and refractory NHL and transformed NHL. III. To determine pharmacokinetics of MLN8237 alone and in combination with rituximab (for NHL patients) in patients with relapsed and refractory NHL and transformed NHL. IV. To evaluate specific molecular characteristics of the NHL for patients treated with MLN8237 alone and with rituximab in order to correlate particular molecular markers with response and survival. V. To evaluate long term survival of patients treated with MLN8237 alone and with rituximab. OUTLINE: Patients are assigned to 1 of 2 treatment groups. COHORT A: Patients receive alisertib orally (PO) twice daily (BID) on days 1-7. Patients unable to achieve complete response (CR) after course 4 also receive rituximab intravenously (IV) on day 1 of courses 5-12. Courses repeat every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. COHORT B: Patients receive alisertib as in Cohort A. Patients achieving stable disease (SD) or asymptomatic progressive disease after 2 courses also receive rituximab IV on day 1 of courses 3-10. Patients unable to achieve CR by course 4, receive rituximab as in Cohort A. Courses repeat every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for up to 2 years and then every 6 months.