Nelfinavir, Radiation Therapy, Cisplatin, and Etoposide in Treating Patients With Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer That Cannot Be Removed By Surgery

OBJECTIVES: Primary * To determine the dose-limiting toxicities, maximum tolerated dose, and recommended phase II dose of nelfinavir mesylate when administered in combination with concurrent thoracic radiotherapy, cisplatin, and etoposide in patients with unresectable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Secondary * To determine the tumor response at 3 months after completion of treatment as measured by RECIST criteria. * To assess the inhibition of p-Akt in primary tumor or pathologic lymph nodes and in peripheral blood lymphocytes after 5-10 days of treatment with nelfinavir mesylate. * To determine the median overall survival (OS) of patients treated with this regimen. * To compare the observed median OS of these patients with the historical median OS of 17 months. OUTLINE: This is a phase I, dose-escalation study of nelfinavir mesylate followed by a phase II study. * Phase I: Patients receive oral nelfinavir mesylate twice daily beginning 1-2 weeks before the initiation of chemoradiotherapy and continuing until the completion of radiotherapy. Patients undergo thoracic radiotherapy once daily 5 days a week for 7-8 weeks. Patients also receive cisplatin IV on days 1, 8, 29, and 36 and etoposide IV on days 1-5 and 29-33. After completion of chemoradiotherapy, patients receive two additional courses of cisplatin and etoposide. * Phase II: Patients receive nelfinavir mesylate at the maximum tolerated dose determined in phase I and concurrent chemoradiotherapy as in phase I. Patients undergo blood sample collection periodically for correlative laboratory studies. Patients treated in the phase II portion of the study and those with primary tumors or pathologic lymph nodes easily accessible by core biopsy or mediastinoscopy also undergo tumor tissue biopsies. Blood and tumor tissue samples are analyzed for expression of molecular markers (total Akt and p-Akt ) by immunohistochemistry. The molecular markers are correlated with treatment response. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed at 3, 6, and 12 months.