Bevacizumab, Cytarabine, and Mitoxantrone on Treating Patients With Hematologic Cancers

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Histologically confirmed poor-risk hematologic malignancy
• * Relapsed or refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)
• * Primary induction failure
• * Myelodysplasia(MDS)-related AML
• * Secondary AML
• * Relapsed or refractory MDS
• * Primary induction failure
• * Refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB)
• * RAEB in transformation
• * Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia
• * Chronic myelogenous leukemia in blast crisis
• Failure of prior primary induction therapy or relapse after achieving complete remission allowed only if no more than 3 courses of prior induction/reinduction therapy were received
• No hyperleukocytosis (50,000 or more leukemic blasts/mm3)
• No active CNS leukemia
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Age:
• 18 and over
• Performance status:
• ECOG 0-2
• Life expectancy:
• Not specified
• Hematopoietic:
• See Disease Characteristics
• No disseminated intravascular coagulation
• Hepatic:
• AST/ALT no greater than 2 times normal
• Alkaline phosphatase no greater than 2 times normal
• Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times normal
• Renal:
• Creatinine no greater than 1.5 times normal
• Cardiovascular:
• LVEF at least 45% by MUGA or echocardiogram
• No myocardial infarction within the past 3 months
• No history of severe coronary artery disease
• No cardiomyopathy
• No New York Heart Association class III or IV heart disease (congestive heart failure)
• Other:
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No active uncontrolled infection
• No history of cytarabine-related neurotoxicity
• No evidence of graft-versus-host disease
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy:
• At least 1 week since prior hematopoietic growth factors including epoetin alfa, filgrastim (G-CSF), and sargramostim (GM-CSF)
• At least 1 week since prior interleukin-3 or interleukin-11
• At least 4 weeks since prior autologous stem cell transplantation
• At least 90 days since prior allogeneic stem cell transplantation
• No other concurrent immunotherapy
• Chemotherapy:
• See Disease Characteristics
• At least 3 weeks since prior chemotherapy and recovered
• No prior cytarabine administered as a 72-hour continuous infusion followed by mitoxantrone IV over 30 minutes
• No other concurrent chemotherapy
• Endocrine therapy:
• Not specified
• Radiotherapy:
• No concurrent radiotherapy
• Surgery:
• Not specified
• Other:
• At least 2 weeks since prior immunosuppressive therapy
• No other concurrent investigational or commercially available antitumor therapy