DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosed with any of the following:

  • Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), meeting 1 of the following criteria:

    • Recurrent disease in remission, defined as morphological remission with bone marrow aspirate/biopsy showing ≤ 5% within 4 weeks before the start of study treatment (cytogenetic or molecular remission is not required)
    • In first complete remission (CR1) with poor-risk cytogenetics, antecedent hematological disease (i.e., myelodysplasia), or treatment-related leukemia

  • Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), meeting 1 of the following criteria:

    • Recurrent disease in remission, defined as morphological remission with bone marrow aspirate/biopsy showing ≤ 5% within 4 weeks before the start of study treatment (cytogenetic or molecular remission is not required)
    • CR1 with Philadelphia chromosome or poor-risk cytogenetics

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

    • First or second chronic phase

      • Must be documented disease progression after imatinib mesylate therapy OR documented lack of cytogenetic response 6 months post-imatinib mesylate initiation OR imatinib mesylate intolerance

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

    • Recurrent disease after fludarabine-based therapy

      • Must have chemosensitive disease at the time of relapse, defined as greater than 50% reduction of WBC and lymphadenopathy

  • Recurrent Hodgkin lymphoma, recurrent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) (low-, intermediate-, or high-grade disease*), or transformed NHL, meeting 1 of the following criteria:

    • Received prior autologous transplantation and cytoreductive therapy at the time of relapse to achieve complete remission (CR) or CR/unconfirmed (CRu) as defined by the International Workshop
    • Relapsed disease that required more than 2 salvage regimens to achieve CR or CRu

  • Recurrent multiple myeloma, meeting the following criteria:

    • Must have received prior autologous transplantation and demonstrate chemosensitivity at the time of relapse, defined as greater than 50% reduction of M-component or plasma-cell marrow infiltration

  • Myelodysplastic syndrome

    • Refractory anemia (RA)/RA with ringed sideroblasts (RARS), refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia (RCMD)/refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia with ringed sideroblasts (RCMD-RS), or RA with excess blasts (RAEB) I, meeting the following criteria:

      • Must be transfusion-dependent and have an IPSS score ≥ 1.5, based on WHO criteria
      • No RAEB II or del(5q)
• No uncontrolled CNS metastases
• 5-6/6 HLA-matched sibling or 9-10/10 matched unrelated donor (both patient and donor) available 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.

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Karnofsky performance status ≥ 50%
• Serum creatinine ≤ 2 mg/dL
• Not pregnant
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception

• 50 years of age or older

  • Patients 18-50 years of age are eligible if meeting 1 of the following criteria:

    • Have a preexisting medical condition
    • Received prior therapy (i.e., autologous transplantation) and are considered to be too high risk for conventional myeloablative transplantation
• Must be willing to accept or comprehend irreversible sterility as a side effect of therapy
• No uncontrolled active infection
• No psychiatric illness or mental deficiency making compliance with treatment or informed consent impossible
• Cardiac ejection fraction ≥ 30%
• Corrected pulmonary-diffusing capacity ≥ 35%
• No serologic evidence of infection with HIV
• No decompensated liver disease with serum bilirubin > 2.0 mg/dL

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics