Nivolumab in Treating Patients With HTLV-Associated T-Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma

Inclusion Criteria

• Patients with any stage of pathologically confirmed cluster of differentiation (CD)3+ acute, lymphoma, chronic, or smoldering subtypes of ATLL
• Documentation of HTLV infection (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]) in individual with confirmation of HTLV-1 infection (by immunoblot or polymerase chain reaction [PCR]) or a consistent clinical picture (including two of the following: 1) CD4+ leukemia or lymphoma, 2) hypercalcemia, and/or 3) Japanese, Caribbean or South American birthplace)
• Patients with acute or lymphoma forms must have received at least one cycle of combination chemotherapy (with or without mogamulizumab) or interferon (with or without zidovudine and/or arsenic); individuals with chronic or smoldering acute T-cell lymphoma (ATL) are not required to have had prior treatment or could have received any number of previous courses of therapy
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-2 (Karnofsky >= 60%)
• Life expectancy > 12 weeks
• Leukocytes >= 3,000/mcL
• Absolute neutrophil count >= 1,500/mcL
• Platelets >= 100,000/mcL
• Total bilirubin within normal institutional limits
• Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase [SGOT])/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase [SGPT]) = = 60 mL/min/1.73 m^2 for patients with creatinine levels above institutional normal
• Women of child-bearing potential and men must agree to use adequate contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control; or abstinence) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation; women should continue birth control for 23 weeks after stopping nivolumab, and men should continue birth control for 31 weeks after stopping nivolumab; 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 31 weeks after completion of nivolumab administration
• Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document

Exclusion Criteria

• Patients who have had chemotherapy or radiotherapy within 4 weeks (6 weeks for nitrosoureas or mitomycin C) prior to entering the study or those who have not recovered from adverse events due to agents administered more than 4 weeks earlier
• Patients who are receiving any other investigational agents
• History of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to nivolumab
• Prior allogeneic transplantation
• Uncontrolled intercurrent 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
• Any condition requiring > 10 mg/d prednisone equivalents
• Current or prior HTLV-1 associated inflammatory diseases, including but not limited to myelopathy, uveitis, arthropathy, pneumonitis, or a Sjogren's disease-like disorder
• Prior treatment with anti-PD-1, anti-programmed death-ligand (PD-L)1, anti-PD-L2 antibody
• Grade 2 or greater toxicity from prior therapy
• Grade 2 or greater diarrhea
• Patients with active autoimmune disease or history of autoimmune disease that might recur, which may affect vital organ function or require immune suppressive treatment including systemic corticosteroids, should be excluded; these include but are not limited to patients with a history of immune related neurologic disease, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune (demyelinating) neuropathy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, myasthenia gravis; systemic autoimmune disease such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), connective tissue diseases, scleroderma, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, hepatitis; an