DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma

  • Histologically confirmed at original diagnosis AND at relapse or disease progression
  • Relapsed or refractory to conventional therapy

• No recurrence without B symptoms or bulky disease at least 1 year after completion of minimal systemic therapy defined by either of the following:

  • Stage IA/IIA with nodal disease previously treated with radiotherapy only
  • Stage IA/IIA with nodal disease previously treated with less than 3 courses of standard dose chemotherapy
• Concurrently enrolled on the COG-AHOD00P1 salvage chemotherapy study OR received other appropriate salvage therapy (e.g., ifosfamide and vinorelbine)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• Under 30

Performance status

• ECOG 0-2 (for adults)
• Lansky 50-100% (for children)

Life expectancy

• At least 2 months

Hematopoietic

• Absolute neutrophil count at least 500/mm^3

Hepatic

• Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times normal
• SGPT less than 2.5 times normal

Renal

• Creatinine no greater than 1.5 times normal OR
• Creatinine clearance or radioisotope glomerular filtration rate at least 70 mL/min/1.73 m^2

Cardiovascular

• Shortening fraction at least 27% by echocardiogram OR
• Ejection fraction at least 50% by MUGA

Pulmonary

• No evidence of dyspnea at rest
• No exercise intolerance
• DLCO at least 50% (patients 8 years of age and over)

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• No concurrent serious illness

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• Recovered from prior immunotherapy
• At least 1 week since prior antineoplastic biologic agents
• More than 1 week since prior growth factors
• No prior stem cell transplantation
• No other concurrent immunomodulating agents

Chemotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• More than 2 weeks since prior myelosuppressive chemotherapy (4 weeks for nitrosoureas) and recovered
• No other concurrent anticancer chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

• No concurrent steroids, including dexamethasone as an antiemetic

Radiotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• Recovered from prior radiotherapy

Surgery

• Not specified

Other

• No concurrent participation in another COG therapeutic study