DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosed with any of the following hematologic malignancies:

  • Non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL), meeting any of the following criteria:

    • Aggressive NHL and other histologies such as diffuse large B-cell NHL

      • Not eligible for autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), high-dose HCT, or after failed autologous HCT
      • Patients with aggressive lymphomas (such as diffuse large B-cell NHL) must not have bulky, rapidly progressive disease immediately prior to HCT
    • Mantle cell NHL beyond first complete response (CR)
    • Low-grade* NHL with < 6 month duration of CR between courses of conventional therapy
    • Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia that failed 2 courses of therapy NOTE: A new classification scheme for adult non-Hodgkin's 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 both terminology.

  • Hodgkin lymphoma

    • Must have received and failed frontline therapy and either failed or not eligible for autologous HCT

  • Leukemia

    • Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), meeting 1 of the following criteria:

      • Failed to meet NCI Working Group criteria for complete or partial response after therapy with a regimen containing fludarabine (or another nucleoside analog [e.g., 2-CDA, pentostatin])
      • Experienced disease relapse within 12 months after completing therapy with a regimen containing fludarabine (or another nucleoside analog)
      • Failed fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab (FCR) combination chemotherapy at any time point
      • Have "17p deletion" cytogenetic abnormality and relapsed at any time point after any initial chemotherapy

    • Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), meeting all of the following criteria:

      • Beyond chronic phase 1
      • Received previous myelosuppressive chemotherapy or HCT and have < 5% marrow blasts at time of transplant
      • Must not have presence of circulating leukemic blasts detected by standard pathology

    • Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), meeting all of the following criteria:

      • Must have < 5% marrow blasts at the time of HCT
      • Must not have presence of circulating leukemic blasts detected by standard pathology

    • Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)

      • Must have < 5% marrow blasts at the time of HCT
      • Must not have presence of circulating leukemic blasts detected by standard pathology

  • Multiple myeloma

    • Must have received more than one line of prior chemotherapy

      • Consolidation of chemotherapy by autografting prior to nonmyeloablative HCT is permitted

  • Myelodysplasia (MDS)/myeloproliferative syndrome (MPS)

    • IPSS score > intermediate 1 after ≥ 1 prior cycle of induction chemotherapy
    • Must have < 5% marrow blasts at time of transplant
    • Must not have presence of circulating leukemic blasts detected by standard pathology
• Not eligible for a curative autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT)
• Must be expected to have disease controlled for ≥ 60 days after HCT
• No HLA-matched related or unrelated marrow donors available
• No CNS involvement with disease refractory to intrathecal chemotherapy

• Has a related donor that meets the following criteria:

  • At least 12 years old
  • Must be HLA-haploidentical donors who are identical for one HLA haplotype and mismatched for any number of HLA-A, -B, -C, DRB1 or DQB1 loci of the unshared haplotype
  • Marrow is the only allowed hematopoietic stem cell source

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Karnofsky performance status (PS) 60-100% or Lansky PS 60-100%
• No life expectancy severely limited by diseases other than malignancy
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Fertile patients must use 2 effective forms of contraception during and for 12 months following treatment

• No significant organ dysfunction that would prevent compliance with conditioning, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis, or would severely limit the probability of survival, including any of the following:

  • Symptomatic coronary artery disease or ejection fraction < 35% or other cardiac failure requiring therapy
  • DLCO < 40%, total lung capacity < 40%, FEV1 < 40%

• No liver function abnormalities including any of the following:

  • Fulminant liver failure
  • Cirrhosis of the liver with evidence of portal hypertension
  • Alcoholic hepatitis
  • Esophageal varices
  • History of bleeding esophageal varices
  • Hepatic encephalopathy
  • Uncorrectable hepatic synthetic dysfunction evinced by prolongation of the prothrombin time
  • Ascites related to portal hypertension
  • Bacterial or fungal liver abscess
  • Biliary obstruction
  • Chronic viral hepatitis with total serum bilirubin > 3mg/dL
  • Symptomatic biliary disease
• No HIV seropositivity
• No poorly controlled hypertension despite multiple antihypertensive medications
• No active infectious disease concerns

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent aspirin or nonsteroid anti-inflammatory medications (e.g., Ibuprofen, Motrin, Advil)
• No concurrent continuous supplementary oxygen
• At least 21 days since immunosuppressive therapy for active graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) for patients who have received prior allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation