DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically documented diagnosis of 1 of the following:

  • Solid tumor

  • Lymphoid malignancy (i.e., lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia)

    • Aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) must have progressed after treatment with two standard therapies
    • Indolent NHL must be considered refractory
• Refractory to standard therapy OR no acceptable standard treatment options
• Measurable or evaluable disease

• No symptomatic brain metastases

  • Patients with treated brain metastases that has remained stable for at least 3 months without steroids allowed

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• ECOG performance status (PS) 0-2 (Karnofsky PS 60-100%)
• Life expectancy > 3 months
• ANC ≥ 1,500/μL
• Platelet count ≥ 100,000/μL
• Total bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN) (≤ 2.5 mg/dL in patients with Gilbert syndrome)
• AST and ALT ≤ 2.5 times ULN
• Creatinine < 1.5 times ULN OR creatinine clearance ≥ 60 mL/min
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for 2 months after completion of study therapy

• No uncontrolled medical illness including, but not limited to, any of the following:

  • Ongoing or uncontrolled, symptomatic congestive heart failure (AHA Class II or worse)
  • Uncontrolled hypertension
  • Unstable angina pectoris
  • Cardiac arrhythmia
  • Psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements
• No chronic diarrhea
• No gastrointestinal diseases that could affect drug absorption

• No gastrointestinal diseases that could alter the assessment of safety, including any of the following:

  • Irritable bowel syndrome
  • Ulcerative colitis
  • Crohn disease
  • Hemorrhagic coloproctitis
• No HIV positivity

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• More than 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy or biologic therapy (> 6 weeks for nitrosoureas, mitomycin C, or UCN-01) and recovered
• No prior gastric bypass surgery
• At least 1 month since any prior radiotherapy or major surgery
• At least 2 weeks since any prior study drug in an exploratory IND/phase zero study
• No concurrent combination antiretroviral therapy in HIV-positive patients
• No other concurrent investigational agents
• No other concurrent antineoplastic therapies except androgen deprivation therapy (i.e., gonadotrophin-releasing hormone) in patients with prostate cancer
• Concurrent bisphosphonates for cancer allowed