Flavopiridol in Treating Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, or Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

Inclusion Criteria:

* Histologically confirmed diagnosis of one of the following:

  * Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) meeting 1 of the following criteria:

    * Refractory to initial treatment (stratum 1)
    * Recurrent disease after prior high-dose chemotherapy with or without stem cell support (stratum 1)
    * High-risk refractory disease defined as failed ≥ 2 regimens for remission induction (i.e., twice induction failure) (stratum 2)
    * High-risk relaspsed disease defined as disease in second or greater bone marrow relapse (stratum 2)
  * Chronic myelogenous leukemia in blast crisis (stratum 1)

    * Myeloid or lymphoid blast crisis that did not respond to or progressed after prior high-dose imatinib mesylate (600-800 mg/day for ≥ 2 weeks)
* No acute promyelocytic leukemia
* Ineligible for or unwilling to undergo potentially curative allogeneic or autologous stem cell transplantation

  * Patients with relapsed AML that is refractory to re-induction therapy comprising an active, intensive salvage regimen are eligible
* CNS involvement allowed provided there are no residual leukemic cells in the cerebrospinal fluid after intrathecal chemotherapy or radiotherapy
* Performance status - ECOG ≥ 2 for patients \> 10 years of age
* Performance status - Lansky 50-100% for patients ≤ 10 years of age
* At least 8 weeks
* Bilirubin ≤ 2 times upper limit of normal (ULN)\* (unless due to Gilbert's syndrome)
* ALT and AST ≤ 5 times ULN\*
* Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL\* (stratum 1)
* Creatinine \> 1.3 times ULN (stratum 2)
* LVEF ≥ 40% by echocardiogram or MUGA (stratum 1)
* Shortening fraction ≥ 28% by echocardiogram (stratum 2)
* No symptomatic congestive heart failure
* No unstable angina pectoris
* No cardiac arrhythmia
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception
* HIV negative
* No history of allergy to study drug
* No active infection requiring IV antibiotics
* No serious medical or psychiatric illness that would preclude giving informed consent or limit survival
* No other uncontrolled illness
* See Disease Characteristics
* Recovered from all prior immunotherapy treatment-related toxicity (stratum 2)
* More than 8 weeks since prior biological agents (e.g., monoclonal antibodies) (stratum 2)
* See Disease Characteristics
* Recovered from all prior chemotherapy treatment-related toxicity (stratum 2)
* More than 24 hours since prior hydroxyurea (for patients who do not have highly proliferative disease)\*
* More than 2 weeks since other prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosourea or mitomycin)
* No other concurrent chemotherapy
* Prior hydrea and/or steroids allowed (stratum 2)
* No concurrent hormones, except steroids for adrenal failure or infusional toxicity (i.e., cytokine release syndrome) or hormones for non-disease-related conditions (e.g., insulin for diabetes)
* See Disease Characteristics
* Recovered from all prior radiotherapy treatment-related toxicity (stratum 2)
* More than 2 weeks since prior radiotherapy
* No concurrent palliative radiotherapy
* Post stem cell transplant allowed provided completion ≥ 4 months prior to study entry and no evidence of active acute or chronic graft vs host disease (stratum 2)
* No other concurrent investigational agents
* No concurrent chronic systemic anticoagulant therapy for a medical condition (e.g., deep vein thrombosis or atrial fibrillation)

  * Concurrent heparin allowed to maintain central line patency (i.e., catheter flush)
* No other concurrent anticancer therapy