Paclitaxel, Cisplatin, and Radiation Therapy With or Without Cetuximab in Treating Patients With Locally Advanced Esophageal Cancer

OBJECTIVES: Primary * To evaluate whether the addition of cetuximab to chemotherapy comprising paclitaxel, cisplatin, and radiotherapy improves overall survival compared with paclitaxel, cisplatin, and radiotherapy alone in patients with esophageal cancer treated without surgery. Secondary * To evaluate whether the addition of cetuximab to paclitaxel, cisplatin, and radiotherapy improves local control by increasing the clinical complete response and decreasing local recurrence in these patients. * To evaluate adverse events in these patients. * To evaluate endoscopic complete response rates in these patients. * To evaluate if the addition of cetuximab to paclitaxel, cisplatin, and radiotherapy improves the Esophageal Cancer Subscale (ECS) score of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Esophagus (FACT-E) quality of life tool. * To evaluate the quality-adjusted survival of each treatment arm using EQ-5D if the primary endpoint supports the primary hypothesis. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to histology (adenocarcinoma vs squamous), cancer lesion size (\< 5 cm vs ≥ 5 cm), and disease status of celiac nodes (present vs absent). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.