Specialized Radiation Therapy and Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer That Cannot Be Removed by Surgery

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine the maximum-tolerable radiotherapy (RT) dose fraction for accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate the rate of radiographic response to treatment. II. To estimate the rates of progression: local/regional/distant. III. To estimate the progression-free survival. IV. To estimate the overall survival. OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation study of accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy. CONCURRENT THERAPY: Patients receive paclitaxel IV over 1 hour and carboplatin IV over 30-60 minutes on days 1 and 8. Treatment repeats every 14 days for 2 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy using 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy or intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) once daily, 5 days a week, for approximately 4-5.5 weeks. CONSOLIDATION THERAPY: Beginning 4 weeks after completion of radiotherapy, patients receive paclitaxel IV over 3 hours and carboplatin IV over 30-60 minutes on day 1. Treatment repeats every 21 days for 2 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 1 month, every 3 months for 2 years, and then every 6 months for 3 years.