S0125, Chemotherapy, Total-Body Irradiation, and Peripheral Stem Cell Transplantation in Treating Older Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Primary objective: * Determine whether allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation with pre-conditioning low dose total body irradiation and fludarabine followed by cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil, when given to elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia in first complete remission, is sufficiently efficacious (in terms of survival 1 year after transplantation) to warrant a phase III investigation. Secondary objective: * Determine the frequency and severity of toxic effects of this regimen in these patients. Other objectives as funding permits: * Determine whether chimerism patterns in bone marrow and blood after transplantation are associated with relapse and/or graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in these patients. * Determine whether cytogenic, immunophenotypic, and molecular biologic features detected in pre- and post-transplantation specimens are related to transplant outcomes and risk of relapse in these patients. OUTLINE: This is an open-label study. * Conditioning regimen: Patients receive fludarabine IV over 1 hour on days -4 to -2. Patients also undergo total body irradiation on day 0. * Peripheral blood stem cell infusion (PBSC): Patients receive unmodified filgrastim transplantation (G-CSF)-mobilized donor PBSC on day 0. * Post-transplantation immunosuppression: Patients receive oral cyclosporine on days -3 to 35 followed by a taper until day 180. Patients also receive oral mycophenolate mofetil on day 0 to 27 without tapering. * Donor lymphocyte infusions (DLI): Patients with relapsed disease receive DLI IV over 30 minutes for up to 2 infusions. Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year, every 6 months for 1 year, and then annually for 3 years. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 25-51 patients will be accrued for this study.