Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Histologically or cytologically confirmed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or
B-cell small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL)

- CLL is defined as:

- Persistent lymphocytosis greater than 5,000/mm^3

- CD19/CD5/CD23 positive

- Kappa or lambda light chain restriction

- Refractory to or disease progression after 1 or 2 prior treatment regimens

- Retreatment with oral chlorambucil is allowed and considered a second regimen

- At least one of the chlorambucil treatments must be for 3 months or longer

- At least 4 courses of cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone with or
without doxorubicin allowed

- Patients may have received prior fludarabine as first- or second-line therapy if
there is evidence of at least partial response and time to progression after
initial fludarabine therapy was at least 12 months

- No CNS involvement by lymphoma

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

- 18 and over

Performance status

- ECOG 0-2 OR

- Karnofsky 60-100%

Life expectancy

- More than 3 months

Hematopoietic

- See Disease Characteristics

- Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,000/mm^3

- Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3

- No autoimmune hemolytic anemia or thrombocytopenia secondary to CLL or SLL requiring
ongoing therapy with prednisone or other immunosuppressive agents

Hepatic

- Bilirubin normal

- AST and ALT no greater than 2.5 times upper limit of normal

Renal

- Creatinine normal OR

- Creatinine clearance at least 60 mL/min

Cardiovascular

- No symptomatic congestive heart failure

- No unstable angina pectoris

- No cardiac arrhythmia

Pulmonary

- DLCO greater than 60% predicted

- FEV_1 greater than 70% predicted

- No significant underlying pulmonary disease

Other

- No other malignancy within the past 5 years except adequately treated basal cell skin
cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix

- No insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

- No other uncontrolled concurrent illness

- No ongoing or active infection

- No pre-existing peripheral neuropathy grade 2 or greater

- No psychiatric illness or social situation that would preclude study compliance

- No prior allergic reactions to compounds of similar chemical or biological
composition to UCN-01 or other agents in this study

- Not pregnant or nursing

- Negative pregnancy test

- Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

- Not specified

Chemotherapy

- See Disease Characteristics

- At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy and recovered

Endocrine therapy

- See Hematopoietic

Radiotherapy

- No prior mediastinal radiation

- At least 4 weeks since prior radiotherapy and recovered

Surgery

- Not specified

Other

- No other concurrent investigational agents

- No concurrent combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV-positive patients