Vosaroxin and Infusional Cytarabine in Treating Patients With Untreated Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Inclusion Criteria: * Ability to provide informed consent * Ability to tolerate intensive therapy with vosaroxin 90 mg/m\^2 and cytarabine * Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-2 at time of study entry * Morphologically confirmed new diagnosis of AML in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) diagnostic criteria * Patients who have received hydroxyurea alone or have previously received "non-cytotoxic" therapies for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) (e.g., thalidomide or lenalidomide, 5-azacytidine or decitabine, histone deacetylase inhibitors, low-dose Cytoxan, tyrosine kinase or dual tyrosine kinase \[TK\]/SRC proto-oncogene, non-receptor tyrosine kinase \[src\] inhibitors) will be allowed * Serum creatinine =\< 2.0 mg/dL * Hepatic enzymes (alanine aminotransferase \[ALT\], aspartate aminotransferase \[AST\]) =\< 2.5 x upper limit of normal * Total bilirubin =\< 1.5 x upper limit of normal unless clearly related to Gilbert's disease, hemolysis or leukemic infiltrate * FOR PATIENTS IN STAGE 1 (PATIENTS #1-#17) * \>= 55 years of age with AML of any risk classification, or 18-54 years of age with high-risk AML disease based on one of the following: * Antecedent hematologic disorder including myelodysplasia (MDS)-related AML (MDS/AML) and prior myeloproliferative disorder (MPD) * Treatment-related myeloid neoplasms (t-AML/t-MDS) * AML with FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) - internal tandem duplicatio…