Clofarabine and Cytarabine in Treating Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia With Minimal Residual Disease

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To test the ability of clofarabine + ara-C (cytarabine) to eliminate minimal residual (MRD) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients whose bone marrows exhibit complete remission by morphology. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine the duration of complete remission after this treatment to minimize MRD. OUTLINE: Patients receive filgrastim (G-CSF) subcutaneously (SC) once daily (QD) on days 1-5 and clofarabine intravenously (IV) over 1 hour and cytarabine IV on days 2-5. Beginning approximately 1 month later, patients may receive one additional course of treatment in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for 2 years, and then annually for 3 years.