Cytarabine With or Without SCH 900776 in Treating Adult Patients With Relapsed Acute Myeloid Leukemia

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To compare the rates of complete remission (CR) plus CR with incomplete recovery (CRi) achieved with cytosine arabinoside (ara-C) (cytarabine) plus the checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) inhibitor MK-8776 (Chk1 inhibitor SCH 900776) vs. ara-C alone for adults (ages 18-75) with relapsed acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate and compare the toxicities of ara-C + MK-8776 vs. ara-C alone. II. To determine the disease free and overall survival of those achieving response to treatment. III. To determine the impact of MK-8776 on AML blast cell deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) repair protein expression profiles and correlate the expression profiles with CR/CRi in response to ara-C + MK-8776 vs. ara-C alone. IV. To evaluate and compare the amount of DNA damage induced in AML blasts by ara-C + MK-8776 vs. ara-C. OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. ARM A: Patients receive cytarabine intravenously (IV) continuously over 72 hours on days 1-3 and 10-12 and Chk1 inhibitor SCH 900776 IV over 30 minutes on days 2, 3, 11, and 12. ARM B: Patients receive cytarabine as in Arm A. In both arms, courses may repeat every 28 days. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up periodically.