Vorinostat and Gemtuzumab Ozogamicin in Treating Older Patients With Previously Untreated Acute Myeloid Leukemia

• Morphological diagnosis of AML other then acute promyelocytic leukemia (FAB M3) according to WHO diagnostic criteria; diagnosis of AML must be based on bone marrow or peripheral blood studies obtained within 28 days prior to study registration or start of hydroxyurea (for patients presenting with WBC >= 10,000/uL), and no potentially anti-leukemic therapy (with the exception of hydroxyurea) must have been given between AML diagnosis and study registration; a bone marrow biopsy is not routinely required but should be obtained if the aspirate is dilute, hypocellular, or inaspirable; outside bone marrows performed within the stipulated time period are acceptable as long as the slides are reviewed at a study institution
• Cytogenetic analysis on bone marrow or peripheral blood specimen is available; based on the result from the first interim analysis, patients stratified into the good-risk group are only eligible if their AML has favorable cytogenetics (core-binding factor AML) or has a normal karyotype; patients stratified into the poor-risk group are eligible independent of the cytogenetic analysis
• Pretreatment bone marrow and peripheral blood specimens for correlative studies are available; if bone marrow was performed at an outside facility, submission of peripheral blood only is acceptable as long as the peripheral blast count is > 5,000/uL and > 50% of total WBC
• Patients with a history of antecedent MDS are eligible, if prior treatment did not include intensive chemotherapy; patients may have received hematopoietic growth factors, thalidomide/lenalidomide, 5-azacytidine/decitabine, arsenic trioxide, signal transduction inhibitors, or low dose cytarabine (\< 100 mg/m2/day) for treatment of MDS; patients must be off prior therapy for MDS at least 30 days prior to study registration, and all non-hematologic toxicities must have resolved to \< grade 2
• ECOG/WHO/Zubrod performance status of 0-3
• Bilirubin =\< 2.5 x Institutional Upper Limit of Normal (IULN) unless elevation is thought to be due to hepatic infiltration by AML, Gilbert's syndrome, or hemolysis (assessed within 14 days prior to registration)
• SGOT (AST) and SPGT (ALT) =\< 1.5 x IULN unless elevation is thought to be due to hepatic infiltration by AML (assessed within 14 days prior to registration)
• Serum creatinine =\< 1.5 x IULN (assessed within 14 days prior to registration)
• Left ventricular ejection fraction >= 40% and no clinical evidence of congestive heart failure (assessed within 28 days prior to registration, e.g. by MUGA scan or echocardiography)
• Men of reproductive potential must use an effective contraceptive method throughout the study and for a period of at least 3 months after the study
• Women must be postmenopausal; a postmenopausal woman is defined as a woman who has experienced amenorrhea > 12 consecutive months or a woman on hormone replacement therapy with documented FSH level > 35 mIU/mL (women of childbearing potential must have a pregnancy test within 28 days prior to registration, and must use an adequate method of contraception to avoid pregnancy throughout the study and for a period of at least 3 months after the study)
• Provide signed written informed consent
• Willingness to undergo bone marrow examination on day 8 of first induction cycle
• WBC \< 10,000/uL (patients with WBC >= 10,000/uL must undergo cytoreduction with hydroxyurea prior to enrollment and will not be enrolled if the WBC remains >= 10,000/uL (of note, patients with symptoms/signs of hyperleukocytosis or WBC > 100,000/uL can be treated with leukapheresis prior to enrollment)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of another malignancy, unless the patient was diagnosed at least 2 years earlier and has been disease-free for at least 6 months following the completion of curative intent therapy; there should be no plan to begin therapy for the prior malignancy at the time of study registration; prior treatment with AML induction-type chemotherapy is not allowed (note the following exceptions: patients with treated non-melanoma skin cancer, in situ carcinoma, or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, regardless of the disease-free duration, are eligible for this study if definitive treatment for the condition has been completed; patients with organ-confined prostate cancer with no evidence of recurrent or progressive disease based on prostate-specific antigen [PSA] values are also eligible for this study if hormonal therapy has been initiated or a radical prostatectomy has been performed; concurrent hormonal therapy is allowed)
• Myeloid blast crisis of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)
• Prior systemic chemotherapy for AML with the exception of hydroxyurea
• Prior treatment with AML induction-type chemotherapy, GO, HDAC inhibitors, or high dose chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell support
• Treatment with HDAC inhibitors during the last 3 years prior to registration, including the use of valproic acid for seizure activity or other purposes
• Known hypersensitivity to hydroxyurea, GO, or vorinostat
• Clinical evidence suggestive of central nervous system (CNS) involvement with leukemia unless a lumbar puncture confirms the absence of leukemic blasts in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
• Prior positive test for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• Breastfeeding
• Uncontrolled systemic fungal, bacterial, viral, or other infection (defined as exhibiting ongoing signs/symptoms related to the infection and without improvement, despite appropriate antibiotics or other treatment)