Vorinostat and Decitabine in Treating Patients With Relapsed, Refractory, or Poor-Prognosis Hematologic Cancer or Other Diseases

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients must have histologically confirmed acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or myeloproliferative disease (MPD) * Patients with refractory or relapsed acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) IPSS intermediate 1 and above and myeloproliferative disease (MPD) will be considered for the study; patients with CML are eligible if they have documented hematologic resistance to imatinib mesylate, or lack of any cytogenetic response to imatinib mesylate after 12 months of therapy; patients with Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML) or Philadelphia negative CML are eligible if their disease is not controlled by standard therapy (e.g. hydroxyurea) or if they show signs of disease progression on standard therapy (blast count \> 5%, platelet count \< 100K); patients with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia are eligible only if they have progressed after standard chemotherapy, ATRA as well as Arsenic Trioxide therapy; untreated patients older than 60 years of age with AML (except APL) or MDS IPSS intermediate 1 and above, not eligible for standard therapy, are also eligible * Patients must have been off chemotherapy for 2 weeks (six weeks for nitrosoureas or mitomycin C) prior to entering this study and recovered from the toxic effects of that therapy unless there is evidence of…