DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of 1 of the following:

  • Confirmed relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or chronic myelogenous leukemia in blast crisis (CML-BC)

    • Patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia who have relapsed while on tretinoin allowed
    • Patients with previously untreated AML who refuse induction chemotherapy allowed
    • Patients who are not candidates for aggressive management (those that have medical conditions that prevent the administration of standard curative chemotherapy or those who require an allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for curative therapy but lack an appropriate donor) are allowed
  • Histologically or cytologically confirmed relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL)

  • Histologically confirmed solid tumor that is metastatic or unresectable or for which standard curative or palliative measures do not exist or are no longer effective

    • Clinically or radiologically documented disease
    • Patients whose only evidence of disease is tumor marker elevation are not eligible

• Patients with AML, ALL, or CML-BC who have cerebral spinal fluid involvement may be included

  • May be treated with intrathecal cytarabine and/or methotrexate prior to and/or during the study
• No known brain metastases in patients with solid tumors or NHL

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• ECOG performance status 0-2 OR
• Karnofsky 60-100%
• Life expectancy > 12 weeks for patients with solid tumors (including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) and 6 weeks for patients with hematological malignancies

• Patients with solid tumors (including NHL) must also have normal marrow function as defined below:

  • Leukocytes ≥ 3,000/mm^3
  • Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,500/mm^3
  • Platelets ≥ 100,000/mm^3
• Creatinine ≤ 150 μmol/L OR
• Creatinine clearance ≥ 60 mL/min
• Bilirubin normal
• AST/ALT ≤ 2.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• Women of child-bearing potential and men must agree to use adequate contraception (barrier method of birth control or abstinence) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• No history of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to vorinostat or other agents used in study
• Able to take oral medications
• Patients who have a clinical or radiological diagnosis of bowel obstruction are ineligible
• No ongoing or active infection
• No symptomatic congestive heart failure
• No unstable angina pectoris
• No cardiac arrhythmia
• No psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements
• No other uncontrolled intercurrent illness

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• No limitation on the number or types of prior therapy

• At least 3 weeks since prior radiotherapy, chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas or mitomycin C), or molecularly targeted agents

  • Exceptions may be made for low-dose, non-myelosuppressive radiotherapy
• At least 2 weeks since prior valproic acid or any other histone deacetylase inhibitor
• Must have recovered from prior therapy
• Patients with hematological malignancies may receive hydroxyurea until 24 hours prior to starting study medications
• Previous surgery is permitted provided that wound healing has occurred
• No prior decitabine
• No other concurrent investigational agents
• No other concurrent investigational or commercial agents or therapies administered with the intent to treat the patient's malignancy
• No HIV-positive patients receiving combination antiretroviral therapy

• No concurrent prophylactic hematopoietic growth factors (e.g. filgrastim [G-CSF], sargramostim [GM-CSF], thrombopoietin, or epoetin alfa)

  • Hematopoietic growth factors colony stimulating factors for the treatment of cytopenia may be permitted at the discretion of the principal investigator