Carboplatin and Paclitaxel With or Without Vorinostat in Treating Patients With Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To compare progression-free survival associated with the combination of carboplatin, paclitaxel and vorinostat versus carboplatin, paclitaxel and placebo for patients with previously untreated, advanced NSCLC. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine the response rate, time to treatment failure, and overall survival for the two regimens. II. To assess the safety profile of the regimen of vorinostat, carboplatin and paclitaxel for patients with advanced NSCLC. III. To understand the mechanistic aspects of drug effect by conducting correlative science studies on peripheral blood and archived tumor tissue. OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. ARM I: Patients receive paclitaxel IV over 3 hours, and carboplatin IV over 30 minutes on day 0. Patients also receive vorinostat orally (PO) once daily on days -2 to 2. ARM II: Patients receive paclitaxel and carboplatin as in arm I. Patients also receive placebo PO once daily on days -2 to 2. In both arms, treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 6 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 30 days, quarterly for 1 year, and then twice a year thereafter.