Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Myelodysplastic Syndrome Before Donor Stem Cell Transplant

OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. Arm A: Patients receive decitabine or azacitidine intravenously (IV) or subcutaneously (SC) for 7 days. Treatment repeats every 28 days for 4 cycles of decitabine or 6 cycles of azacitidine in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Arm B: Patients receive induction-like chemotherapy per standard of care or per experimental protocol. This study does not require a specific chemotherapy regimen for Arm B. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up for 18 months.