Vorinostat and Azacitidine in Treating Patients With Locally Recurrent or Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Cancer or Nasal Natural Killer T-Cell Lymphoma

Inclusion Criteria

• •Biopsy proven nasopharyngeal carcinoma (World Health Organization \[WHO\] type 3) or extranodal NK-T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, nasal type (recurrence or metastases does not require tissue documentation)
• •Patients must have metastatic disease or locally recurrent disease that is not amendable to surgical resection
• •Patients must have locally recurrent disease that is not amendable to further treatment with radiotherapy with curative intent
• •Patients must have metastatic disease or locally recurrent disease that has been treated with at least one regimen of chemotherapeutic agents after relapse; patient must be at least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy or radiation therapy
• •Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status =\< 2 (Karnofsky \>= 60%)
• •Life expectancy greater than 6 months
• •Leukocytes \>= 3,000/ul
• •Absolute neutrophil count \>= 1,500/ul
• •Platelets \>= 100,000/ul
• •Total bilirubin =\< 1.5 X normal institutional limits
• •Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase \[SGOT\])/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase \[SGPT\]) =\< 2.5 X institutional upper limit of normal
• •Prothrombin time =\< 1.5 X normal institutional limits
• •Serum albumin \>= 2.7 grams/deciliter
• •Creatinine =\< 1.5 X normal institutional limits or a calculated creatinine clearance of \> 50 mls/min
• •Sexually active women of child-bearing potential should have a negative serum or urine pregnancy test within 21 days of enrolling on trial; women of child-bearing potential and men must agree to use adequate contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control; abstinence) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation; should a woman become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while participating in this study, she should inform her treating physician immediately
• •Patients must be informed of the investigational nature of the treatment, results that might be expected, and potential toxicities; they must be able to give informed written consent according to federal and institutional guidelines