DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Pathologically confirmed diagnosis of leukemia (acute myeloid leukemia [AML], acute lymphoblastic leukemia [ALL], blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia [CML]), or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)

  • Evidence of disease with > 5% bone marrow involvement detected by morphology or abnormal cytogenetics (by karyotype or FISH)
  • Patients with molecular detection of markers characteristic of the patient's disease from two consecutive bone marrow biopsies are also eligible

• Relapsed or persistent disease after prior hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)

  • Patient has undergone prior related or unrelated HLA-compatible (9/10 or 10/10) HSCT within the past year

    • Patients with documented graft versus host disease (GVHD) are not excluded from this trial, but must not have used systemic immunosuppression (e.g., systemic steroids, calcineurin inhibitors, MTOR-inhibitors, budesonide, anti-thymocyte globulin) for at least one month
    • Patients with grade I/II acute GVHD or limited chronic GVHD and receiving localized GVHD therapy (e.g., topical steroids) are not excluded from this trial
• Deemed ineligible for second HSCT after consideration of adequacy of their physical function, extent of disease, and prior treatment-related toxicities
• CML patients should have already received and failed bulk donor leukocyte infusion or donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) (if the stem cell donor is available for DLI) for relapsed/persistent disease
• Patients with extramedullary relapse are eligible except for those with CNS involvement
• Stem cell boost from the related or unrelated HSCT donor available
• Related HLA-haploidentical NK cell donor available

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Patient must not be pregnant and must be using an adequate form of birth control
• Karnofsky (adult) or Lansky (pediatric) performance status 70-100%
• LVEF at rest must be > 50%
• ALT < 2 x upper limit of normal (ULN) and total bilirubin < 1.5 mg/dL, unless liver is involved with the disease or there is congenital benign hyperbilirubinemia
• Serum creatinine < 1.5 mg/dL or creatinine clearance > 50 mL/min
• Not oxygen-dependent
• No active infection

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics
• Patients who have received previous adoptive cellular therapy such as donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) are not excluded from this trial as long as their disease has been documented to progress within two months of receiving DLI or if the patient has not received DLI within the past two months

• At least 1 month since prior and no concurrent systemic immunosuppressive agents including, but are not limited to, systemic steroids, calcineurin inhibitors, MTOR-inhibitors, budesonide, or anti-thymocyte globulin

  • Localized therapy (e.g., topical steroids) for GVHD allowed