RATIONALE: Giving chemotherapy and radiation therapy to the entire body before an autologous peripheral stem cell transplant stops the growth of cancer cells by stopping them from dividing or killing them. The patient's stem cells are then returned to the patient to replace the blood-forming cells that were destroyed by the chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying the side effects of giving combination chemotherapy together with or without total-body irradiation followed by a stem cell transplant and to see how well it works in treating patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

OBJECTIVES:

• To evaluate the outcome of patients with poor-risk, age-adjusted International Prognostic Index high- and high-intermediate-risk, intermediate- and high-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma undergoing high-dose therapy comprising etoposide and cyclophosphamide, either carmustine or total-body irradiation, and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) given as a consolidation therapy.
• To evaluate the role of high-dose therapy and ASCT during first partial or complete remission (1PR/CR) in patients with poor-risk primary mediastinal large cell lymphoma.
• To evaluate the role of high-dose therapy and ASCT during first 1PR/CR in patients with advanced-stage mantle cell lymphoma.
• To evaluate the short-term and long-term toxicities of high-dose therapy and ASCT when performed during 1PR/CR in patients with poor-risk aggressive lymphomas.

OUTLINE: Patients are stratified according to disease (diffuse mixed, diffuse large cell, and immunoblastic lymphoma vs primary mediastinal large cell lymphoma vs small noncleaved cell lymphoma vs stage IV mantle cell lymphoma).

Patients' peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) are collected after mobilization. A minimum of 2.0 x 10^6 CD34+ cells/kg must be collected. Patients experiencing disease progression during stem cell collection will be removed from study. Patients are assigned to undergo 1 of 2 therapeutic regimens.

• Regimen 1: Patients undergo total-body irradiation (TBI) on days -8 to -5 and receive etoposide IV over 4 hours on day -4 and cyclophosphamide IV over 2 hours on day -2. Patients undergo autologous PBSC transplantation on day 0.
• Regimen 2 (for patients who have received any prior thoracic irradiation or patients who underwent previous irradiation that precludes the use of TBI): Patients receive carmustine IV over 2 hours on days -7 to -5. Patients then receive etoposide and cyclophosphamide and undergo autologous PBSC transplantation as in regimen 1.

Patients with residual bulky disease greater than 5 cm may undergo involved-field radiotherapy before or after transplantation.

Patients are followed at days 7, 14, 21, 100 and 180 after PBSC transplantation, every 6 months for 3 years, and then annually thereafter.

Inclusion Criteria:

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Biopsy-proven diagnosis of high-grade (small noncleaved cell lymphoma [SNCCL] or immunoblastic lymphoma) or intermediate-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) including mantle cell lymphoma (MCL)

• SNCCL patients with all of the following factors at presentation of disease:

  • Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) > 500 IU/L
  • Unresectable bulky mass > 10 cm
  • Stage IV disease with bone marrow involvement

• MCL Patients with stage IV disease or in International Prognostic Index (IPI) high- or high-intermediate-risk group at the time of diagnosis

• Considered at diagnosis to be high- (3 risk factors) or high-intermediate-risk (2 risk factors) based on an age-adjusted IPI

• Poor prognostic factors at diagnosis include stage III or IV disease, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level above normal, or ECOG performance status (PS) 2-4

• Patients with primary mediastinal large cell lymphoma with or without sclerosis who at diagnosis had elevated LDH level with bulky mediastinal mass > 10 cm associated with a pleural effusion on chest radiography or computer tomography, or who have persistent mediastinal mass with positive disease by post-treatment gallium GA 67 scan

• Must have attained a complete response or partial response to first-line standard conventional chemotherapy

• ECOG PS 0-1 OR Karnofsky PS 80-100%

• Serum creatinine < 1.5 mg/dL OR creatinine clearance > 60 mL/min

• FEV_1 > 65% of predicted measurement or DLCO ≥ 45% of predicted measurement

• Cardiac ejection fraction > 50% by echocardiogram

• Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 x normal

• SGOT or SGPT ≤ 2 x normal

Exclusion Criteria:

• Evidence of lymphoma or < 10% lymphomatous involvement of bone by bilateral bone marrow aspiration and biopsy
• Abnormal cytogenetic study of bone marrow aspirate sample NOTE: A new classification scheme for adult non-Hodgkin lymphoma has been adopted by PDQ. The terminology of "indolent" or "aggressive" lymphoma will replace the former terminology of "low", "intermediate", or "high" grade lymphoma. However, this protocol uses the former terminology.
• Positive HIV antibody
• Prior malignancies except for adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma of the skin
• Hepatitis B surface antigen positivity
• Prior bone marrow transplantation

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior bone marrow transplantation