Surgery With or Without Internal Radiation Therapy Compared With Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With High-Risk Stage I Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

OBJECTIVES: Primary * To ascertain whether patients treated by stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) have a 3-year overall survival (OS) rate that is no more than 10% less than patients treated with sublobar resection (SR). Secondary * To compare loco-regional recurrence-free survival between study arms. * To compare disease-free survival between study arms. * To compare grade 3 or higher specific adverse event profiles between study arms at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-therapy. * To compare pulmonary function between patients treated with SBRT and patients treated with SR. * To compare the adverse events and pulmonary function tests (PFTs) in each arm for patients with low or high Charlson comorbidity index scores, including a test interaction between Charlson comorbidity index scores (low vs high) and treatment arm. Tertiary * To compare the quality-adjusted survival between the SBRT and SR treatments in terms of time to death (primary) and time until recurrence (secondary). * To examine whether pre-operative and post-operative clinically significant deficits in previously identified prognostic PRO domains (overall quality of life \[QOL\], fatigue, anxiety, and dyspnea) are associated with shorter patient survival in this patient population and to compare the relative effectiveness of each treatment (SBRT and SR). * To contribute to an ACOSOG bank of normative data in order to improve short/long-term outcomes of cancer patients by identifying patients experiencing clinically significant deficits in patient-reported outcomes and the relationship to genetic variables. * To explore whether blood-based biomarkers, including osteopontins, will be able to predict which patients will be at high risk for recurrence by treatment with either SBRT or SR. (exploratory) * To explore whether blood-based biomarkers, including TGF-β1, will be able to predict which patients will be at high risk for pulmonary complications by treatment with either SBRT or SR. (exploratory) OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to planned brachytherapy (yes vs no) and ECOG performance status (0 vs 1 vs 2). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. * Arm I: Patients undergo sublobar resection comprising either a wedge resection or anatomical segmentectomy with or without intraoperative brachytherapy\* comprising an iodine I 125 implant at the resection margin. * Arm II: Patients undergo 3 fractions of stereotactic body radiation therapy at 2-8 days apart. NOTE: \*Patients may receive brachytherapy at the discretion of treating physician. Patients may undergo blood sample collection at baseline and periodically during study for correlative studies. Tumor tissue samples may also be collected from patients who undergo resection. Patients complete the Lung Cancer Symptom Scale (LCSS), the Linear Analogue Self-Assessment (LASA), and the UCDS Shortness of Breath quality-of-life questionnaires at baseline and periodically during study and follow-up. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up for 30 days, every 3 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 1 year, and then yearly for 2 years.