DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Biopsy-proven diagnosis of low- or intermediate-grade* non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) including any of the following:

  • Working formulation B, C, D, E, F, G and H
  • Follicular lymphoma (grade1-3)
  • Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
  • Immunoblastic lymphoma
  • Mantle cell lymphoma NOTE: *A new classification scheme for adult non-Hodgkin lymphoma has been adopted by PDQ. The terminology of "indolent" or "aggressive" lymphoma will replace the former terminology of "low-", "intermediate-", or "high-" grade lymphoma. However, this protocol uses the former terminology.
• Transformed low-grade lymphomas allowed
• Demonstrated monoclonal CD20-positive B-cell population in lymph nodes and/or bone marrow

• Patient either relapsed after achieving a complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) to prior therapy, has never responded to prior therapy, or has poor-risk disease

  • Sensitivity of disease based on 1 of the following:

    • Induction failure: patients did not achieve a CR or PR from induction chemotherapy
    • Resistant relapse: patients did not achieve a CR or PR from the most recent standard salvage chemotherapy
    • Sensitive relapse: patients did achieve a CR or PR from the most recent standard salvage chemotherapy

  • Poor-risk disease defined as any of the following:

    • Age-adjusted International Prognostic Index High (3 risk factors) or High-Intermediate (2 risk factors) based on the following risk factors:

      • Stage III-IV disease
      • Elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase level
      • ECOG performance status 2-4
    • Patients with follicular lymphoma (grade 1-3) or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who fail to achieve a CR after adequate induction chemotherapy
    • Patients with mantle cell lymphoma histology, including patients in first CR
    • Patients with transformed low-grade lymphoma, including those in first remission
• Patients with prior bone marrow involvement must have bone marrow aspiration and biopsy that show ≤ 10% lymphomatous involvement of total cellularity within 42 days prior to stem cell collection or salvage chemotherapy
• Candidate for high-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation

• No abnormal cytogenetic study not related to the underlying lymphoma on the bone marrow aspirate sample prior to stem cell collection

  • If cytogenetics was not performed on the marrow aspirate prior to stem cell collection, cytogenetics on the peripheral blood may be performed
• No prior or active CNS disease
• No human anti-Zevalin antibody (HAHA) antibody
• Must be enrolled concurrently on protocol 98117, "Molecular Pathogenesis of Therapy-Related Leukemia"

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• ECOG performance status 0-1 OR Karnofsky PS 80-100%
• Serum creatinine less than upper limit of normal (ULN) OR creatinine clearance ≥ 60 mL/min
• FEV_1 > 60% of predicted OR DLCO ≥ 50% of predicted
• LVEF > 50% by ECHO or MUGA scan
• Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times ULN
• SGOT or SGPT ≤ 2 times ULN
• HIV antibody negative
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No prior malignancy except adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer, adequately treated noninvasive carcinoma, or other cancer from which the patient has been disease-free for at least 5 years
• No active evidence of hepatitis B or C infection
• No hepatitis B surface antigen positivity

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics
• Recovered from last therapy
• At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy or chemotherapy
• No prior radioimmunotherapy
• No prior bone marrow transplantation
• No prior radiotherapy to the lung except mediastinal irradiation provided minimal lung is in the treatment volume
• No prior radiotherapy dose to the kidneys > 500 cGy