Gene Therapy and Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With AIDS-Related Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Inclusion Criteria: * HIV seropositive at or before the time of lymphoma diagnosis; all HIV positive patients are eligible regardless of HIV viral load or antiviral therapy (ART) status; all patients on study will receive ART as per standard guidelines * Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0 - 2 * Biopsy proven lymphoma for which rituximab, etoposide, prednisone, vincristine sulfate, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin hydrochloride (R-EPOCH) is appropriate frontline therapy, e.g., Burkitt lymphoma or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) NHL, including plasmablastic lymphoma and primary effusion lymphoma but not T-cell lymphoma; tissue histology will be reviewed at the treating institution * No psychosocial conditions that would hinder study compliance and follow-up * Pretreatment serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) =\< 2.5 x institutional upper limit of normal (ULN) * Pretreatment serum bilirubin =\< 2.5 x ULN or total bilirubin \< 4.5 mg/dl with direct fraction =\< 0.3 mg/dl in patients for whom these abnormalities are felt to be due to protease inhibitor therapy * Patients with evidence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) or hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection must have no clinical evidence of cirrhosis * Serum creatinine \< 2 x the institutional ULN; however, if serum creatinine \> 1.5 x ULN, a 24 hour urine creatinine clearance must be \> 50 ml/min unless there is renal involvement by lymphoma * Absen…