Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Diagnosis of one of the following:

- Patients with primary refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), defined as ≥ 5%
bone marrow blasts after two induction courses of chemotherapy

- Primary refractory AML, defined as ≥ 5% bone marrow blasts after two induction
courses of chemotherapy

- AML or myelodysplastic syndrome with -5/5q- or monosomy 7 without
inv(16)/t(16;16) or t(8;21) cytogenetics or NPM or CEBPα mutations

- Relapsed AML (≥ 5% bone marrow blasts) who meet the customary WHO criteria for
AML

- AML and high FLT3 internal tandem duplication allelic ratio (high FLT3-ITD AR),
defined as > 0.4

- All cases of therapy-related AML (therapy-related AML is considered high risk)

- Patients with AML, without inv(16)/t(16;16) or t(8;21), monosomy 7, -5/5q-, NPM,
or CEPBα mutations, or high FLT3-ITD AR, but with evidence of residual AML (≥
0.1%) at the end of Induction I; or if a minimal residual disease (MRD) is not
performed, then with > 15% bone marrow blasts by morphology after one induction
course of chemotherapy

- Any flow-based MRD is eligible for AAML05P1 for patients not on AAML1031,
whereas patients on AAML1031 must utilize the central lab as per the
AAML1031 protocol guidelines

- No Fanconi anemia

- Recipients of unrelated marrow or cord blood are eligible for this study

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- Karnofsky performance status (PS) (for patients over 16 years of age) or Lansky PS
(for patients 16 and under) 50-100%

- Total bilirubin ≤ 2 mg/dL

- SGOT (AST) or SGPT (ALT) ≤ 2.5 times upper limit of normal

- DLCO ≥ 50% OR a normal chest x-ray and pulse oximetry in patients who are unable to
undergo pulmonary function tests

- Shortening fraction ≥ 27% by ECHO

- Creatinine clearance or radioisotope glomerular filtration rate at least 60 mL/min OR
creatinine adjusted according to age

- HIV negative

- Not pregnant or nursing

- Negative pregnancy test

- Fertile patients must use effective contraception

- Patients with proven or suspected bacterial sepsis, pneumonia, or meningitis are
eligible provided appropriate therapeutic measures have been initiated to control the
presumed or proven infection, and systemic signs are not life-threatening

- No evidence or presence of a fungal infection within the past 30 days

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- Prior chemotherapy, radiotherapy or any antileukemic therapy allowed provided
patients meet 1 of the following criteria:

- Received initial treatment for relapsed AML

- Patients with primary induction failure or relapse who have already received
initial therapy and who may have gone on to have additional therapy prior to
receiving protocol stipulated therapy on AAML05P1

- No treatment for fungal infection within the past 30 days

- Concurrent radiotherapy to localized painful lesions allowed

- No other concurrent cancer chemotherapy or immunomodulating agents