PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:~I. Determine the complete and partial response rate in patients with recurrent or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with CCI-779.~II. Determine the toxicity and safety of this drug in these patients. III. Correlate the degree of activation of P13/AKT/mTOR pathway and levels of CDK inhibitors with response in patients treated with this drug.~IV. Correlate CCI-779 induced inactivation of mTOR with response in these patients.~OUTLINE: Patients are stratified according to disease (aggressive lymphoma [group A] vs follicular lymphoma [group B] vs small lymphocytic lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia [group C]).~Patients receive CCI-779 IV over 30 minutes on days 1, 8, 15, and 22. Courses repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.~Patients are followed every 8 weeks.
Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as CCI-779, work in different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. This phase II trial is studying how well CCI-779 works in treating patients with recurrent or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia.