Alvocidib, Cytarabine, and Mitoxantrone Hydrochloride or Cytarabine and Daunorubicin Hydrochloride in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To compare the rate of complete remission (CR) after 1 course of induction therapy with the timed-sequential combination of alvocidib (flavopiridol), cytarabine (cytosine arabinoside \[ara-C\]), and mitoxantrone hydrochloride (FLAM) vs traditional "7+3" cytarabine and daunorubicin hydrochloride (ara-C + Daunorubicin) for adults (age 18 to 70) with newly diagnosed, previously untreated, intermediate-risk or poor-risk acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate and compare the toxicities of FLAM vs 7+3. II. To compare the 2-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in response to FLAM vs 7+3. III. To detect and compare the presence of minimal-residual disease (MRD) remaining after FLAM vs 7+3. IV. To determine the expression of ABC transport proteins multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1, ABCB1) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP, ABCG2) on AML blasts pretreatment and correlate the expressions of one or both proteins with CR and DFS in response to FLAM vs 7+3. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to risk features: age (\< 50 vs \>= 50), secondary AML (pre-existing myelodysplatic syndrome \[MDS\], myeloproliferative diseases \[MPD\], treatment-related \[t\]-AML, or severe multi-lineage dysplasia) and/or known adverse cytogenetics, and hyperleukocytosis (white blood cells \[WBC\] \>= 50,000/mm\^3). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. ARM I: Patients receive alvocidib intravenously (IV) over 1 hour on days 1-3, cytarabine IV over 72 hours on days 6-8, and mitoxantrone hydrochloride IV over 1-2 hours on day 9. Patients who achieve complete or partial response to the first course (completion of all doses) may receive a second course of treatment or high-dose cytarabine after 21-63 days following blood count recovery, and/or undergo allogeneic bone marrow transplant. ARM II: Patients receive cytarabine IV continuously on days 1-7 and daunorubicin hydrochloride IV on days 1-3. Patients who have residual disease on day 14 may receive additional cytarabine for 5 days and daunorubicin hydrochloride for 2 days. Patients may undergo blood and bone marrow collection for correlative studies. After completion of study therapy, patients are followed up every 3 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 5 years, and then annually thereafter.