Filgrastim, Cladribine, Cytarabine, and Mitoxantrone Hydrochloride in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed or Relapsed/Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia or High-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Inclusion Criteria: * For patients with newly diagnosed disease: diagnosis of "high-risk" myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) (\>= 10% blasts) or AML other than acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) with t(15;17)(q22;q12) or variants according to the 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) classification; for patients with relapsed/refractory disease: prior diagnosis of "high-risk" MDS or non-APL AML, with relapsed/refractory disease according to standard criteria requiring first or subsequent salvage therapy; patients with biphenotypic AML are eligible * Outside diagnostic material is acceptable as long as peripheral blood and/or bone marrow slides are reviewed at the study institution; flow cytometric analysis of peripheral blood and/or bone marrow should be performed according to institutional practice guidelines * For patients with relapsed/refractory disease: patients with prior autologous or allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for MDS/AML are eligible if relapse occurs provided symptoms of graft-versus host disease are well controlled with stable use of immunosuppressive agents * Treatment-related mortality (TRM) score =\< 6.9 as calculated with simplified model * The use of hydroxyurea prior to study registration is allowed; patients with symptoms/signs of hyperleukocytosis or white blood cell (WBC) \> 100,000/uL can be treated with leukapheresis or may receive up to 2 doses of cytarabine (up to 500 mg/m\^2/dose) prior to enrollment * For patients with relapsed/r…