Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Stage IIIB or Stage IV Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy in treating patients who have stage IIIB or stage IV non-small cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVES: * Determine the response rate and duration of response to mitomycin, vinorelbine, and cisplatin plus tretinoin in patients with stage IIIB or IV non-small cell lung cancer. * Determine the toxicity of this treatment regimen in these patients. * Determine survival of these patients with this treatment regimen. OUTLINE: Patients receive tretinoin orally twice daily for 4 days starting days 1 and 8; cisplatin IV over 2 hours and vinorelbine IV on days 1 and 8; and mitomycin IV (courses 1 and 3) on day 1. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed for survival. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: At total of 15-46 patients will be accrued for this study.