DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed poor-risk hematologic malignancy

  • Relapsed or refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)

    • Primary induction failure
    • Myelodysplasia(MDS)-related AML
    • Secondary AML

  • Relapsed or refractory MDS

    • Primary induction failure
    • Refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB)
    • RAEB in transformation
    • Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia
  • Chronic myelogenous leukemia in blast crisis
• Failure of prior primary induction therapy or relapse after achieving complete remission allowed only if no more than 3 courses of prior induction/reinduction therapy were received
• No hyperleukocytosis (50,000 or more leukemic blasts/mm3)
• No active CNS leukemia

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• ECOG 0-2

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No disseminated intravascular coagulation

Hepatic:

• AST/ALT no greater than 2 times normal
• Alkaline phosphatase no greater than 2 times normal
• Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times normal

Renal:

• Creatinine no greater than 1.5 times normal

Cardiovascular:

• LVEF at least 45% by MUGA or echocardiogram
• No myocardial infarction within the past 3 months
• No history of severe coronary artery disease
• No cardiomyopathy
• No New York Heart Association class III or IV heart disease (congestive heart failure)

Other:

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No active uncontrolled infection
• No history of cytarabine-related neurotoxicity
• No evidence of graft-versus-host disease

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• At least 1 week since prior hematopoietic growth factors including epoetin alfa, filgrastim (G-CSF), and sargramostim (GM-CSF)
• At least 1 week since prior interleukin-3 or interleukin-11
• At least 4 weeks since prior autologous stem cell transplantation
• At least 90 days since prior allogeneic stem cell transplantation
• No other concurrent immunotherapy

Chemotherapy:

• See Disease Characteristics
• At least 3 weeks since prior chemotherapy and recovered
• No prior cytarabine administered as a 72-hour continuous infusion followed by mitoxantrone IV over 30 minutes
• No other concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

• Not specified

Radiotherapy:

• No concurrent radiotherapy

Surgery:

• Not specified

Other:

• At least 2 weeks since prior immunosuppressive therapy
• No other concurrent investigational or commercially available antitumor therapy