S0350 Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed Stage II, Stage III, or Stage IV Peripheral T-Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

Diagnosis of peripheral T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Newly diagnosed, relapsed or progressing disease after 1 prior treatment with a non-platinum based chemotherapy (e.g., CHOP)
Bulky stage II or stage III or IV disease

The following histologies are not eligible:

T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia
T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia
Any NK-cell leukemia
Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma
Mycosis fungoides/Sézary syndrome
Lymphomatoid papulosis
Nasal-type extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma
Enteropathy-type T-cell lymphoma
Hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma
Subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma
Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma
Primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL)

ALCL with CD30, ALK, and EMA expression

ALCL morphology that fails to express ALK or EMA allowed provided T-cell lineage is confirmed by immunotyping or genetic testing
Bidimensionally measurable disease

Adequate samples (e.g., core biopsies, especially multiple core biopsies) from the original diagnostic specimen available

Needle aspiration or cytology is not considered adequate samples
No clinical evidence of Central nervous system (CNS) involvement by lymphoma

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

18 and over

Performance status

Zubrod 0-2

Life expectancy

Not specified

Hematopoietic

Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,500/mm^3
Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm^3

Hepatic

Bilirubin ≤ 2 times upper limit of normal

Renal

Creatinine clearance ≥ 30 mL/min

Cardiovascular

No history of congestive heart failure
No history of myocardial infarction
No history of unstable angina
No history of asymptomatic arrhythmias
Ejection fraction normal by multigated acquisition (MUGA) scan (for patients with questionable cardiac history)
No other history of impaired cardiac status

Other

Not pregnant or nursing
Negative pregnancy test
Fertile patients must use effective contraception
No known HIV positivity
Mild clinical hearing loss allowed provided patient is willing to accept the potential for worsening of hearing loss
No other malignancy within the past 5 years except adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix
Must have had a chest x-ray or CT scan of the chest and a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis within the past 28 days

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

At least 3 weeks since prior biologic therapy
No concurrent routine use of bone marrow colony-stimulating factors

Chemotherapy

No other concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

Not specified

Radiotherapy

No prior radiotherapy for this cancer
No concurrent radiotherapy

Surgery

Not specified

Other

No prior cytotoxic therapy for this cancer
Concurrent enrollment in SWOG-8819 or SWOG-8947 allowed