- Unequivocal histologic diagnosis of AML (> 20% blasts in the bone marrow based on the World Health Organization [WHO] and/or French-American-British Cooperative group [FAB] classifications), excluding M3 (acute promyelocytic leukemia); patients with antecedent myelodysplasia are eligible for treatment on this trial only if there was no bone marrow biopsy showing myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) > 3 months prior to enrollment; patients with therapy-related MDS or therapy-related AML or a chronic myeloproliferative disorder are not eligible