DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) that has failed standard first-line chemotherapy
• Measurable disease
• NHL tissue Lym-1 reactive in vitro
• Normocellular bone marrow as evidenced by less than 25% of the bone marrow being NHL by bilateral bone marrow biopsy
• No bone marrow evidence of myelodysplastic syndrome
• HAMA titer negative

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• Karnofsky 70-100%

Life expectancy:

• 3 to 6 months

Hematopoietic:

• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,500/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 130,000/mm^3

Hepatic:

• Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 mg/dL
• AST no greater than 84 U/L

Renal:

• Creatinine less than 1.5 mg/dL OR
• Creatinine clearance at least 50 mL/min

Cardiovascular:

• LVEF at least 50%

Pulmonary:

• FEV1 at least 60% of predicted
• FVC at least 60% of predicted
• DLCO at least 50%

Other:

• No other prior malignancy within the past 5 years except for nonmelanoma skin cancer
• HIV negative
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• Not specified

Chemotherapy:

• See Disease Characteristics
• At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

• Not specified

Radiotherapy:

• At least 4 weeks since prior external beam radiotherapy

Surgery:

• Not specified