Sunitinib Malate as Maintenance Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage III or Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Previously Treated With Combination Chemotherapy

Inclusion Criteria

• •Histologic or cytologic documentation of primary non-small cell lung cancer
• •Stage IIIB or IV disease patients who are not candidates for combined modality therapy (chemoradiotherapy)
• •No evidence of symptomatic or untreated brain metastases, spinal cord compression, or carcinomatous meningitis; patients with central nervous system (CNS) metastases must be asymptomatic, must have received definitive therapy (\>= 6 weeks since resection or \>= 2 weeks since radiotherapy) for brain metastases, and be off steroids or on a stable dose for 2 weeks prior to registration
• •No cavitary lesions
• •Patients must have received one chemotherapy regimen for stage IIIB or IV NSCLC; the regimen must include four cycles of platinum-based doublet chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab (bevacizumab may not be given beyond the fourth cycle of chemotherapy); patients must have achieved a complete response, partial response, or stable disease to first-line chemotherapy and have no evidence of disease progression; patients will be registered 3-5 weeks following day 1 of cycle 4 of prior therapy
• •No prior adjuvant chemotherapy for stage I-III resected NSCLC or combined modality therapy for stage III NSCLC
• •No other primary therapy (including experimental therapy) for NSCLC; palliative radiation therapy must have been completed at least one week before planned start of protocol therapy
• •Patients must have measurable or non-measurable disease
• •* Measurable disease: lesions that can be accurately measured in at least one dimension (longest diameter to be recorded) as \>= 2 cm with conventional techniques or as \>= 1 cm with spiral computed tomography (CT) scan
• •* Non-measurable disease: all other lesions, including small lesions (longest diameter \< 20 mm with conventional techniques or \< 10 mm with spiral CT scan) and truly non-measurable lesions; lesions that are considered non-measurable include the following:
• •* Bone lesions
• •* Leptomeningeal disease
• •* Ascites
• •* Pleural/pericardial effusion
• •* Lymphangitis cutis/pulmonis
• •* Abdominal masses that are not confirmed and followed by imaging techniques
• •* Cystic lesions
• •Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0 or 1
• •Non-pregnant and non-nursing
• •No ongoing cardiac dysrhythmias, atrial fibrillation, or history of corrected QT (QTc) interval \>= 500 msec (within 2 years prior to registration); the use of agents with proarrhythmic potential (e.g., quinidine, procainamide, disopyramide, sotalol, probucol, haloperidol, risperidone, indapamide, flecainide) is not recommended while on protocol therapy
• •Patients with class I New York Heart Association (NYHA) heart failure are eligible; patients with a history of class II NYHA heart failure are eligible, provided they meet at least one of the following criteria:
• •* Patients with a history of class II heart failure who are asymptomatic on treatment
• •* Patients with prior anthracycline exposure
• •* Patients who have received central thoracic radiation that included the heart in the radiotherapy port