Pembrolizumab after Stem Cell Transplant in Treating Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma, Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, or T-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Inclusion Criteria

• Histologically confirmed diagnosis with review of the diagnostic pathology specimen at one of the participating institutions; eligible histologies are: * For Arm A: diffuse large B cell lymphoma; patients with a prior history of indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) are eligible, as long as they have histologically confirmed diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) prior to their pretransplant salvage treatment; patients with mediastinal large B cell lymphoma are also eligible * For Arm B: classical Hodgkin lymphoma (patients with nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma [NLPHL] are NOT eligible) For Arm C: peripheral T cell lymphoma – eligible subtypes will include peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), not otherwise specified (NOS); angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma (AITL); ALK-negative anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL); enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphoma (EATL) and monomorphic epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma (MEITL); and extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL); patients with other PTCL histologies, including ALK-positive PTCL, and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma will not be eligible
• For arms A and B, participants must have relapsed after or been refractory to first-line chemotherapy, i.e., they must have failed to achieve CR after first-line therapy or must have relapsed subsequently if they achieved CR; for arm C, participants will be eligible if transplant is performed as consolidation of first remission (partial or complete)
• Participants must be planning to receive or have received autologous stem cell transplantation; participants may enroll prior to ASCT, but will not be eligible to begin treatment until after ASCT, and must fulfill all inclusion and exclusion criteria at that time; ASCT will be performed according to institutional standards and is not a part of this study
• Participants must have chemosensitive disease prior to ASCT, defined as achieving at least a partial remission (as determined with PET imaging) to salvage treatment using International Harmonization Project (IHP) criteria; participants with cHL or DLBCL (arms A and B) transplanted in first (1st) remission after only one line of treatment are not eligible; participants with PTCL (arm C) transplanted beyond 1st remission are also not eligible
• No more than 1 line of anthracycline-containing chemotherapy prior to ASCT, and no more than 3 lines of therapy total prior to ASCT for arms A and B; no more than 1 line of therapy prior to ASCT for arm C
• Participants cannot have received any anti-neoplastic therapy (including radiotherapy, chemotherapy or immunotherapy) after ASCT
• Participants must have had PET-computed tomography (CT) for restaging after salvage therapy and before ASCT
• Participants must begin study treatment no later than 21 days from the post-ASCT discharge; additionally, they must have recovered from ASCT toxicities at the time of first study treatment; recovery from ASCT toxicity is defined using the eligibility criteria in this section, as well as outpatient status, ability to drink and eat normally, without the need for intravenous hydration; participants must be no later than 60 days from stem cell reinfusion; exceptions to these time frames may be made in discussion with the overall principal investigator (PI) and will not constitute study violations
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status =< 1
• Absolute neutrophil count >= 1,000/mcL
• Platelets >= 50,000/mcL
• Hemoglobin >= 8 g/dl
• Total bilirubin =< 1.5 x institutional upper limit of normal (ULN), or direct bilirubin =< ULN in patients with Gilbert’s syndrome
• Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase [SGOT])/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase [SGPT]) =< 2.5 x ULN
• Creatinine =< 1.5 x ULN or creatinine clearance >= 60 mL/min/1.73 m^2
• Resting and ambulatory oxygen saturation >= 94% on room air
• Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and diffusion capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) (adjusted for hemoglobin) >= 50% predicted
• The effects of pembrolizumab on the developing human fetus are unknown; for this reason women of child-bearing potential and men must agree to use adequate contraception for the duration of study participation and for 120 days after the last treatment with pembrolizumab; should a woman become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while she or her partner is participating in this study, she should inform her treating physician immediately; men treated or enrolled on this protocol must also agree to use adequate contraception prior to the study, for the duration of study participation, and for 120 days after the last treatment with pembrolizumab
• Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document

Exclusion Criteria

• Participants who are receiving any other investigational agents after ASCT
• Participants with active central nervous system (CNS) involvement are excluded; patients with suspected CNS disease should be worked up appropriately prior to enrollment
• History of or active autoimmune disease, or other syndrome that requires systemic steroids or autoimmune agents; participants with vitiligo, resolved childhood asthma or atopy, hypothyroidism, or Sjogren’s syndrome, as well as participants requiring only intranasal steroids, intermittent use of bronchodilators, local steroid injections, or physiologic replacement doses of prednisone (=< 10 mg/d) are not excluded from this study
• History of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to pembrolizumab; prior hypersensitivity reactions to anti-CD20 therapy or anti-CD30 therapy is not an exclusion criterion
• Has a history of (non-infectious) pneumonitis that required steroids or current pneumonitis
• Receipt of > 600 mg/m^2 total dose of carmustine (BCNU) with prior treatments including transplant conditioning regimen
• Uncontrolled illness including, but not limited to, ongoing or active infection, symptomatic congestive heart failure, unstable angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmia, or psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements or pose excess risk to the participant in the opinion of the treating clinician
• Pregnant or lactating women are excluded from this study because the effects of pembrolizumab on the developing fetus are unknown, and because there is an unknown but potential risk for adverse events in nursing infants secondary to treatment of the mother with pembrolizumab
• Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive participants on combination antiretroviral therapy are ineligible because the effect of pembrolizumab on the course of HIV infection is unknown; appropriate studies will be undertaken in participants receiving combination antiretroviral therapy when indicated
• Participants with active viral hepatitis (positive hepatitis B surface antigen [HepB sAg], positive HepB core antibody [Ab] with positive hepatitis B [HepB] viral load, or positive hepatitis C [HepC] antibody with positive HepC viral load)
• Receipt of a live vaccine within 30 days of the start of treatment; examples are measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, yellow fever, rabies, Bacillus Calmette–Guerin (BCG), oral polio vaccine, and oral typhoid vaccine
• Prior treatment with an anti PD-1, anti PD-L1, or anti CTLA-4 agent; participants who entered clinical remission with one of those agents and proceeded to ASCT without intervening relapse may be eligible after discussion with the study chair; note that for patients who enter remission with checkpoint blockade therapy, this will not count towards the 3 lines of prior therapy