Donor Peripheral Stem Cell Transplant, Fludarabine, and Busulfan in Treating Patients With Hematologic Cancers

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

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