Vorinostat and Azacitidine in Treating Patients With Myelodysplastic Syndromes or Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Inclusion Criteria: * Eligibility Criteria for the phase I portion (step 1); patients must have a diagnosis of either MDS according to French-American-British (FAB) and International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) criteria, or a diagnosis of AML according to FAB or World Health Organization (WHO) criteria * MDS: All patients must have an established diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome confirmed by peripheral blood and bone marrow maturational abnormalities in the erythroid, megakaryocytic and granulocytic series, defined according to the French -American-British (F.A.B.) classification * Refractory anemia (RA), defined as having anemia with =\< 1% blasts in the peripheral blood and dyserythropoiesis; neutropenia and thrombocytopenia may also be present but are less common; the bone marrow is usually normocellular or hypercellular with \< 5% blast cells * Refractory anemia with ring sideroblasts (RARS), defined as refractory anemia above, but also including the presence of ringed sideroblasts comprising \>= 15% of all nucleated cells in the bone marrow * Refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB), defined as having 5-20% myeloblasts in the bone marrow and less than 5% blasts in the peripheral blood, together with abnormalities in erythroid megakaryocytic and granulocytic maturation consistent with myelodysplasia * Refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation (RAEB-T), defined as 21-29% myeloblasts in the marrow, or more than 5% blasts in the…