RATIONALE: Biological therapies use different ways to stimulate the immune system and stop cancer cells from growing. Treating a person's or donor's a cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the laboratory and reinfusing them may cause a stronger immune response to kill Epstein-Barr virus-associated cancer cells.

PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best dose of autologous or donor cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in treating patients with relapsed Epstein-Barr virus-associated Hodgkin's lymphoma or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the safety of autologous or allogeneic LMP2A-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in patients with relapsed Epstein-Barr virus-positive Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
• Determine the survival and immune function of patients treated with this regimen.
• Determine the antiviral and antitumor effects of this regimen in these patients.
• Obtain preliminary information on the safety of and response to an extended dosage of this regimen in these patients.

OUTLINE: Peripheral blood is collected from the patient or a donor and allogeneic or autologous dendritic cells (DC) are generated over 7 days using sargramostim (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 (IL-4). DC are transduced with recombinant AdLMP2A and matured with GM-CSF, TNFa, PGE-1, and IL-4 over 2 days to stimulate cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL). Patients receive LMP2A-specific CTL IV over 1-10 minutes on days 0 and 14.

Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of LMP2A-specific CTL.

Patients are evaluated at 8 weeks. Patients with stable disease or a partial response may receive 6 additional doses of LMP2A-specific CTL IV over 1-10 minutes once monthly.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 18 patients will be accrued for this study.

• Lymphoma
• Lymphoproliferative Disorder

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of Epstein-Barr virus-positive Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

  • Any histological subtype

  • Meets criteria for 1 of the following:

    • Second or subsequent relapse (or first relapse or with active disease if immunosuppressive chemotherapy is contraindicated (e.g., patients who develop Hodgkin's lymphoma after a prior solid organ transplant, who have lymphoma as a second malignancy, or who have relapsed multiple times AND at high risk of relapse) (group A)
    • In remission OR with minimal residual disease after autologous stem cell transplantation for Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or lymphoepithelioma (group B)
    • In remission OR with detectable disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (group C)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• Any age

Performance status

• Karnofsky 50-100%

Life expectancy

• At least 6 weeks

Hematopoietic

• Hemoglobin greater than 8.0 g/dL
• More than 50% donor chimerism in either peripheral blood or bone marrow after allogeneic stem cell transplantation
• No evidence of graft-vs-host disease > grade II

Hepatic

• Bilirubin less than 3 times normal
• AST less than 5 times normal

Renal

• Creatinine less than 2 times normal

Other

• Not pregnant
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No concurrent severe infection
• HIV negative

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• See Disease Characteristics

Chemotherapy

• Not specified

Endocrine therapy

• Not specified

Radiotherapy

• Not specified

Surgery

• Not specified

Other

• More than 1 month since prior investigational therapy