Trebananib With or Without Low-Dose Cytarabine in Treating Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Inclusion Criteria: * Diagnosis of AML as defined by the World Health Organization (excluding acute promyelocytic leukemia and chronic myeloid leukemia- blast/accelerated phase) in an adult patient * Patients with newly diagnosed untreated AML for whom the treatment of choice is low-intensity therapy by investigator assessment or who has declined intensive induction therapy recommended by the investigator OR * Patients with refractory or relapsed AML following at least one prior treatment course who are not currently considered eligible for stem cell transplantation at the time of screening due to non-optimal AML disease control, lack of suitable transplantation donor, failure to meet other transplantation criteria, or refusal to undergo transplantation * Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status 0-2 (ECOG 3 is excluded) * Total bilirubin within normal institutional limits * Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase \[SGOT\]) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamic pyruvate transaminase \[SGPT\]) =\< 2.5 x institutional upper limit of normal (ULN) * Creatinine clearance \> 40ml/min per 24 hour urine collection or calculated according to the Cockcroft-Gault formula * Urinary protein quantitative value of less than 30mg/dL in urine analysis or less than 1+ on dipstick, unless quantitative protein is \< 1000mg in a 24 hour urine sample * Partial thromboplastin time (PTT) or activated (aPTT) =\< 1.5 x ULN per institution lab…