Tipifarnib in Treating Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia in Remission

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients eligible to enter this study must fall into one of these categories: * Patients in first remission following primary induction failure * Patients must have received at least two chemotherapy induction regimens * Patients in second or subsequent remission * Patients \> 60 years old in first remission * Patients must be in complete remission (CR) or morphologic remission (MR) by blood counts and bone marrow studies to enter the study * Confirmatory bone marrow must be performed =\< 2 weeks prior to randomization * Patients must have morphologic proof (from bone marrow aspirate, smears or touch preps of marrow biopsy) that they had AML of one of the following types prior to achievement of CR/MR * Acute myeloblastic leukemia, minimal differentiation (French-American-British \[FAB\] M0) * Acute myeloblastic leukemia without differentiation (FAB M1) * Acute myeloblastic leukemia with maturation (FAB M2) * Acute myelomonocytic leukemia (FAB M4) * Acute monocytic leukemia (FAB M5) * Acute erythroleukemia (FAB M6) * Acute megakaryocytic leukemia (FAB M7) * Refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation (RAEB-T) * AML by World Health Organization (WHO) criteria * Acute myeloid leukemia with multilineage dysplasia * Patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (FAB M3) are not eligible * Patients must be registered within 60 days of completion of therapy for the current remission; patients are eligible if they meet a…