506U78 in Treating Patients With Lymphoma

Inclusion Criteria: * Histologically documented cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) or noncutaneous peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) (needle aspirate or core biopsy of tissue or marrow as the sole means of diagnosis is not acceptable), confirmed by immunophenotyping, including: * Mycosis fungoides/Sezary syndrome * Peripheral T-Cell lymphomas (medium, mixed medium-large, large cell) * Variants of peripheral T-Cell lymphoma * Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell lymphoma (AILD); angiocentric lymphoma; intestinal T-Cell Lymphoma; adult T-Cell lymphoma/leukemia (ATLL); anaplastic Large Cell (CD30+) lymphoma, T-cell type Failure to submit pathology slides within 60 days of patient registration will result in patient being declared ineligible; Note: patients diagnosed more than one year prior to entry on this protocol must have a repeat lymph node biopsy. In the event of rapid tumor growth, rising LDH, or the onset of B symptoms in a period of time less than one year a rebiopsy is also required * Biopsy and immunophenotyping should be performed to document relapse after prior treatment * CTCL patients may have received one prior course of single-agent systemic chemotherapy for CTCL, but may not have received a multi-agent chemotherapy regimen; patients may have received prior local, topical, radiation- or electron beam-based, or chemotherapy-based treatment; examples of the latter would include, but not be limited to, cytokines such as interferon, retinoids, monoclonal antibodies, an…