OBJECTIVES:~Primary~Determine the response rate, in terms of hematologic improvement and complete and partial remission, in patients with primary or secondary (therapy-related) myelodysplastic syndromes treated with vatalanib.~Determine the time to transformation to acute myeloid leukemia (at least 20% blasts) or death in patients treated with this drug.~Secondary~Determine the safety of this drug in these patients.~Determine the duration of response in patients treated with this drug.~Determine the cytogenetic response rate in patients treated with this drug.~Determine the overall and progression-free survival of patients treated with this drug.~Determine the incidence of infections requiring antibiotics or hospitalization or bleeding requiring red blood cell transfusions in patients treated with this drug.~OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified* according to risk group (low grade [refractory anemia with or without ringed sideroblasts, refractory anemia with excess blasts-1, refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia with or without ringed sideroblasts, myelodysplastic syndromes-unclassified, or chronic myelomonocytic leukemia-1] vs high grade [refractory anemia with excess blasts-2 or chronic myelomonocytic leukemia-2]).~NOTE: *Stratification according to risk (low vs high) does not occur after 11/30/06.~Patients receive oral vatalanib once daily on days 1-28. Courses repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients with a complete response (CR) receive 6 additional courses after documentation of a CR.~Patients are followed periodically for up to 5 years from study entry.~PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 144 patients will be accrued for this study within 2.5 years.
RATIONALE: Vatalanib may be effective in preventing the development of leukemia in patients who have myelodysplastic syndromes.~PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying vatalanib to see how well it works in treating patients with primary or secondary myelodysplastic syndromes.