Vorinostat and Azacitidine in Treating Patients With Locally Recurrent or Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Cancer or Nasal Natural Killer T-Cell Lymphoma

Inclusion Criteria: * Biopsy proven nasopharyngeal carcinoma (World Health Organization \[WHO\] type 3) or extranodal NK-T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, nasal type (recurrence or metastases does not require tissue documentation) * Patients must have metastatic disease or locally recurrent disease that is not amendable to surgical resection * Patients must have locally recurrent disease that is not amendable to further treatment with radiotherapy with curative intent * Patients must have metastatic disease or locally recurrent disease that has been treated with at least one regimen of chemotherapeutic agents after relapse; patient must be at least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy or radiation therapy * Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status =\< 2 (Karnofsky \>= 60%) * Life expectancy greater than 6 months * Leukocytes \>= 3,000/ul * Absolute neutrophil count \>= 1,500/ul * Platelets \>= 100,000/ul * Total bilirubin =\< 1.5 X normal institutional limits * Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase \[SGOT\])/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase \[SGPT\]) =\< 2.5 X institutional upper limit of normal * Prothrombin time =\< 1.5 X normal institutional limits * Serum albumin \>= 2.7 grams/deciliter * Creatinine =\< 1.5 X normal institutional limits or a calculated creatinine clearance of \> 50 mls/min * Sexually active women of child-bearing potential should have a negative serum or urine pregnancy…