Midostaurin and Azacitidine in Treating Elderly Patients With Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine the safe and tolerable dose of midostaurin in combination with azacitidine in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia. (Phase I) II. To describe the toxicity profile of the combination of midostaurin and azacitidine in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia. (Phase I/II) III. To determine the complete and partial response rate and rate of hematologic improvement of midostaurin and 5-azacitidine in untreated acute myelogenous leukemia. (Phase I/II) SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To describe pharmacokinetics of oral midostaurin given in combination with azacitidine on a day 8-21 schedule. (Phase I/II) II. To correlate treatment response with FLT3 mutational status in a descriptive fashion. (Phase I/II) III. To assess overall survival of patients from initiation of midostaurin-azacitidine toxicities. (Phase I/II) IV. To determine median disease-free survival of the regimen in untreated patients. (Phase II) TERTIARY OBJECTIVES: I. To describe signaling in CD117+ committed myeloid precursors in whole blood and bone marrow samples before and during treatment. (Phase I/II) II. To measure in vivo FLT3 inhibition using plasma inhibition assay (PIA) and Flt ligand (FL) levels in patients enrolled on this trial before and during treatment. (Phase I/II) OUTLINE: This is a phase I, dose escalation study of midostaurin followed by a phase II study. Patients receive azacitidine intravenously (IV) over 10-20 minutes on days 1-7 and midostaurin orally (PO) twice daily (BID) on days 8-21. Courses repeat every 28 days for up to 8 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for 1 year, every 6 months for 2 years, and then annually thereafter.