Surgery With or Without Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Stage I Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine if adjuvant chemotherapy can favorably alter the prognosis of the subgroup of resected stage I patients who, following complete surgical resection of their disease, are defined as "high risk" based on the presence of a T2N0 tumor (according to the criteria of the International Staging System for lung cancer). SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I To compare failure-free survival of patients with T2N0 stage I NSCLC who have and have not been treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. II. To determine the toxicities associated with adjuvant chemotherapy. III. To describe the pattern of disease recurrence. OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to tumor histology (squamous cell vs nonsquamous cell), degree of differentiation (poorly differentiated vs other), and mediastinal node sampling at surgery (yes vs no). Within 4-8 weeks after surgery, patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. Arm I:Patients receive no further therapy. Arm II: Patients receive adjuvant therapy comprising paclitaxel IV over 3 hours followed by carboplatin IV over 1-2 hours on day 1. Treatment continues every 3 weeks for 4 courses. Patients are followed every 4 months for 2 years and then every 6 months thereafter.