Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Histologically confirmed diagnosis of 1 of the following:

- Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, including the following subtypes:

- Lymphoblastic lymphoma

- Burkitt's lymphoma

- Large cell lymphoma

- Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

- Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma

- Peripheral T-cell lymphoma

- Hodgkin's disease

- Acute myeloid leukemia

- Chronic myelogenous leukemia

- Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)

- More than 5% blasts in the bone marrow (i.e., M2 marrow classification)

- Acute hybrid leukemia, including the following subtypes:

- Mixed lineage leukemia

- Biphenotypic leukemia

- Undifferentiated leukemia

- CD25-positive (CD25+) disease, meeting 1 of the following criteria:

- More than 15% of malignant cells are CD25+ by immunohistochemistry with
anti-CD25 antibody

- More than 30% of malignant cells from a site are CD25+ by fluorescence-activated
cell sorting analysis

- Measurable or evaluable disease

- Relapsed or refractory disease after at least 1 standard chemotherapy regimen AND 1
salvage regimen

- No available alternative curative therapies

- Ineligible for or refused hematopoietic stem cell transplantation OR disease activity
that prohibits the required time to identify a suitable stem cell donor

- No CNS leukemia or lymphoma, as evidenced by any of the following criteria:

- Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) WBC > 5/µl AND confirmation of CSF blasts

- Cranial neuropathies secondary to underlying malignancy

- CNS lymphoma detected by radiological imaging

- Prior CNS involvement with no current evidence of CNS malignancy allowed

- No isolated testicular ALL

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

- 6 months to 21 years

Performance status

- ECOG 0-3 (≥ 12 years of age)

- Lansky 40-100% (< 12 years of age)

Life expectancy

- Not specified

Hematopoietic

- Pancytopenia due to disease allowed

- For patients without bone marrow involvement:

- Absolute neutrophil count > 1,000/mm^3

- Platelet count > 50,000/mm^3 (transfusion independent)

Hepatic

- Bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dL

- AST and ALT ≤ 5 times upper limit of normal

- Hepatitis B surface antigen negative

- Hepatitis C antibody negative

Renal

- Creatinine clearance ≥ 60 mL/min OR

- Creatinine, meeting the following age-related criteria:

- ≤ 0.8 mg/dL (≤ 5 years of age)

- ≤ 1.0 mg/dL (6 to 10 years of age)

- ≤ 1.2 mg/dL (11 to 15 years of age)

- ≤ 1.5 mg/dL (> 15 years of age)

- Calcium 2.0-2.9 mmol/L

Cardiovascular

- Ejection fraction ≥ 45% by MUGA OR

- Shortening fraction ≥ 28% by echocardiogram

Pulmonary

- Oxygen saturation ≥ 90%

Other

- Sodium 130-150 mmol/L

- Potassium 3.0-5.5 mmol/L

- Magnesium 0.5-1.23 mmol/L

- HIV negative

- Not pregnant or nursing

- Negative pregnancy test

- Fertile patients must use effective contraception

- No clinically significant unrelated systemic illness that would preclude study
participation

- No conditions that would preclude study compliance

- No serum that neutralizes > 75% of the activity of 1 μg/mL of LMB-2 immunotoxin in
tissue culture (due to either anti-toxin or anti-mouse immunoglobulin G antibodies)

- No active graft-vs-host disease (i.e., off immunosuppression)

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

- Prior autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) allowed

- At least 100 days since prior allogeneic BMT

- At least 1 week since prior colony-stimulating factors (e.g., filgrastim [G-CSF],
sargramostim [GM-CSF], or epoetin alfa)

Chemotherapy

- At least 2 weeks since prior chemotherapy (4 weeks for nitrosoureas) except
intrathecal chemotherapy

- No other concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

- Concurrent corticosteroids allowed provided the dose has been stable for the past
week and does not increase during study treatment

- Tapering or discontinuation of steroids allowed

Radiotherapy

- At least 3 weeks since prior radiotherapy unless < 10% of marrow is irradiated and
measurable disease exists outside the radiation port

Surgery

- Not specified

Other

- Recovered from all prior therapy

- At least 30 days since prior investigational agents

- Concurrent oral supplementation to maintain normal electrolyte levels allowed

- No concurrent anticoagulation therapy for disease-related conditions

- No other concurrent investigational agents