STI571 Plus Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia or Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

OBJECTIVES:

* Determine the maximum tolerated dose of daunorubicin when combined with imatinib mesylate, vincristine, and prednisone in patients with lymphoid blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia or Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. * Determine the safety of this regimen in these patients. * Determine the pharmacokinetics of this regimen in these patients. * Determine the frequency of hematologic and cytogenetic responses in patients treated with this regimen. * Determine the duration of response of this patient population treated with this regimen. * Determine the survival of patients treated with this regimen.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter, dose-escalation study of daunorubicin.

Patients who have not previously received imatinib mesylate receive oral imatinib mesylate on days 1-35. Patients who have previously received imatinib mesylate for at least 28 days receive oral imatinib mesylate on days 22-35. All patients receive daunorubicin IV over 2-3 minutes on days 1-3, vincristine IV over 1 minute on days 1, 8, 15, and 22, and oral prednisone on days 1-28. Patients with more than 5% residual blasts in bone marrow on day 28 receive a second course in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of daunorubicin until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 6 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity. Once the MTD is determined, additional patients are treated at the recommended phase II dose.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A maximum of 46 patients will be accrued for this study.