Pinometostat With Standard Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia and MLL Gene Rearrangement

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients must have histologically confirmed acute myeloid leukemia by World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Patients with treatment-related acute leukemia are eligible if they do not exceed lifetime anthracycline doses * Presence of a cytogenetic rearrangement of KMT2A (MLL) by interphase fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) * Patients must have previously untreated (with exception of hydroxyurea for count control or all-trans retinoic acid \[ATRA\] for acute promyelocytic leukemia \[APML\] that was initially suspected but later ruled out) AML by World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Treatment with hydroxyurea for count-control of hyperproliferative disease is permitted before and during treatment with pinometostat and chemotherapy * Age \>=14 years at time of screening, although individual sites may further restrict age eligibility in accordance with local Institutional Review Board (IRB) and hospital policy. * Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status =\< 2 (Karnofsky \>= 60%) * Total bilirubin =\< 1.5 x institutional upper limit of normal (ULN), unless elevated due to Gilbert syndrome, hemolysis, or leukemia (at the time of eligibility screening) * Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase \[SGOT\])/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase \[SGPT\]) =\< 2.5 x institutional ULN, unless due to leukemia in which case \< 5 x ULN (at the time of eligibility screeni…