Cladribine, Cytarabine, and Imatinib Mesylate in Treating Patients With Refractory or Relapsed Acute Myeloid Leukemia or Blastic Phase Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)

  * Refractory AML defined as any of the following:

    * Failure to achieve complete response (CR) after 2 courses of induction chemotherapy
    * Persistent bone marrow blasts \> 40% after 1 course of induction chemotherapy
    * Relapse of disease within 3 months since CR
  * Relapsed AML defined as the following:

    * Any evidence of disease recurrence after CR (early relapse occurs within 3-12 months and late relapse occurs \> 12 months later)
  * No acute promyelocytic leukemia (AML-M3 FAB subgroup)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Performance status

* ECOG 0-2

Life expectancy

* Not specified

Hematopoietic

* Not specified

Hepatic

* Bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dL
* AST ≤ 2.5 times upper limit of normal
* No known chronic liver disease (e.g., chronic active hepatitis or cirrhosis)

Renal

* Creatinine \< 2.5 mg/dL (if 2.0-2.5 mg/dL, glomerular filtration rate must be measured and dose of cytarabine adjusted if necessary)

Cardiovascular

* No New York Heart Association grade III-IV heart disease
* No congestive heart failure
* No myocardial infarction within the past 6 months
* Ejection fraction ≥ 30%

Other

* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective barrier contraception during and for 3 months after completion of study treatment
* No uncontrolled systemic active infection
* No known HIV infection
* No history of allergic reaction attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biological composition to study drugs
* No history of other curatively treated malignancy except nonmelanoma skin cancer

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

* No other concurrent biologic agents

Chemotherapy

* See Disease Characteristics
* No other concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

* No concurrent birth control pills

Other

* More than 1 week since any prior investigational agent
* No other concurrent investigational agents or therapies
* No other concurrent anticancer agents
* No concurrent therapeutic anticoagulation with warfarin

  * Low molecular weight heparin or heparin allowed for therapeutic anticoagulation
  * Mini-dose warfarin (e.g., 1 mg per day) allowed for prophylaxis of central venous catheter thrombosis