BMS-214662 in Treating Patients With Acute Leukemia, Myelodysplastic Syndrome, or Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients must have: * AML, ALL, or high-risk MDS (RAEB or RAEB-t) that has: * Not responded (no CR) to initial induction chemotherapy, or * Recurred after an initial CR of \< 1 year, or * Recurred after an initial CR of \> 1 year and failed to respond to an initial reinduction attempt, or * Recurred more than once, or * Chronic myeloid leukemia in myeloid blast phase * Patients with CML blast phase may receive BMS-214662 as their first therapy for blast phase or after failing other treatments for blast phase * Patients with refractory or relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia are eligible provided they have failed an ATRA-containing regimen * Performance status of =\< 0-2 * Signed informed consent indicating that patients are aware of the investigational nature of this study in keeping with the policies of the hospital * Patients must have been off chemotherapy for the 4 weeks prior to entering this study and recovered from the toxic effects of that therapy; patients with evidence of rapidly progressive disease (i.e., absolute peripheral blood blast count \>= 5 x 10\^9/L and increasing by \>= 1 x 10\^9/L/24 hours) may receive treatment before 4 weeks from the previous treatment providing they have recovered from all toxic effects of that therapy; use of hydroxyurea on patients with rapidly proliferative disease is allowed up to 24 hours prior to the start of therapy * Bilirubin =\< 1.5 mg/dL * Creatinine =\< 1.5 mg/dL or creatinine clearance \>= 60 mL/hr * Patients who are likely to benefit from allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (i.e., age \< 60 years of physiological age with histocompatible donor) should be excluded from this study unless such therapy is not feasible Exclusion Criteria: * Pregnant and nursing females will be excluded; patients of childbearing potential should practice effective methods of contraception * Patients with prolonged QTc interval on EKG are excluded