Vorinostat, Cytarabine, and Etoposide in Treating Patients With Relapsed and/or Refractory Acute Leukemia or Myelodysplastic Syndromes or Myeloproliferative Disorders

Inclusion Criteria:

* Histologically or cytologically confirmed diagnosis of 1 of the following:

  * Relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML)

    * Patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia t(15;17) must have failed prior tretinoin and arsenic trioxide-containing regimen

      * Must be refractory to both agents with absence of durable hematologic response OR relapsed after a complete response duration of \< 6 months
  * Relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia
  * Chronic myelogenous leukemia in accelerated or blastic phase

    * Must be refractory to treatment with imatinib mesylate or dasatinib

      * Disease progression despite continued treatment with imatinib mesylate or dasatinib
    * Patients in accelerated or blastic phase are eligible if unable to tolerate imatinib mesylate provided their disease has progressed on dasatinib or if unable to tolerate dasatinib
  * AML arising in the setting of underlying myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and/or myeloproliferative disorders (MPD)
  * Secondary or therapy-related AML
* No active CNS leukemia
* Leukostasis OR leukemic blast count \> 50,000/mm³ allowed provided patient is treated with emergency leukapheresis or hydroxyurea to reduce leukemic blast count to \< 30,000/mm³
* ECOG performance status (PS) 0-2 OR Karnofsky PS 60-100%
* Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
* AST and ALT ≤ 2.5 times ULN
* Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL
* Not pregnant or nursing
* Negative pregnancy test
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception
* No history of cytarabine-related neurotoxicity
* No history of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to vorinostat (SAHA) or other agents used in the study
* No other uncontrolled illness, including, but not limited to, any of the following:

  * Symptomatic congestive heart failure
  * Unstable angina pectoris
  * Cardiac arrhythmia
  * Psychiatric illness or social situation that would preclude compliance with study requirements
* Infection allowed provided patient is receiving active treatment
* No HIV positivity
* See Disease Characteristics
* Recovered from prior therapy

  * Persistent alopecia, fingernail discoloration, or hematologic abnormalities (primarily related to underlying disease) \> 4 weeks after last course of chemotherapy or radiotherapy does not exclude patient
* At least 2 weeks since prior valproic acid or any other histone deacetylase inhibitor
* No more than 3 prior courses of induction/reinduction chemotherapy, including induction and consolidation therapy or induction therapy after any bone marrow transplantation or similar procedure

  * Prior low-dose azacitidine, growth factors, cytokines, thalidomide, interferon, or imatinib mesylate for treatment of preceding MDS/MPD do not count as prior induction/reinduction therapy
* At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas \[e.g., carmustine\] or mitomycin C) or radiotherapy
* At least 24 hours since prior hydroxyurea
* At least 2 weeks since prior imatinib mesylate, hematopoietic growth factors, and biological agents
* At least 4 weeks since prior autologous stem cell transplantation
* Prior allogeneic stem cell transplantation allowed if all of the following criteria are met:

  * At least 90 days since prior transplant
  * No evidence of graft-vs-host disease
  * At least 2 weeks since prior immunosuppressive therapy
* No other concurrent anticancer agents or therapies
* No other concurrent investigational agents
* Concurrent hydroxyurea or leukapheresis allowed on days 1-10 of study treatment to control rising leukemic blasts (blasts \> 30,000/mm³) or leukostasis