Chemotherapy Before Surgery in Treating Patients With High Grade Upper Urinary Tract Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate the rate of complete pathologic response (pCR = pT0pN0) as assessed by standard pathologic review attained by neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy and nephroureterectomy. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate the safety of neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy in patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma preceding nephroureterectomy. II. To evaluate distant recurrence-free survival of patients treated with neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy preceding nephroureterectomy. III. To evaluate event-free survival of patients treated with neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy preceding nephroureterectomy. IV. To evaluate bladder cancer-free survival of patients treated with neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy preceding nephroureterectomy. V. To evaluate cancer specific survival of patients treated with neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy preceding nephroureterectomy. VI. To evaluate renal functional outcomes of patients treated with neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy preceding nephroureterectomy. TERTIARY OBJECTIVES: I. To collect pre-treatment and post-treatment tumor tissue, peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC), peripheral blood plasma, and urine specimens for potential evaluations of markers of chemotherapy response/resistance. OUTLINE: Patients are assigned to 1 of 2 treatment arms based on baseline renal function. ARM A (CREATININE CLEARANCE \[CRCL\] \> 50): Patients receive methotrexate intravenously (IV) over 2-3 minutes, vinblastine IV, doxorubicin hydrochloride IV, and cisplatin IV over 4 hours on day 1. Treatment repeats every 14 days for 4 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients without metastatic disease undergo nephroureterectomy and lymph node dissection 21-60 days after completion of chemotherapy. ARM B (30 =\< CRCL \<= 50): Patients receive gemcitabine hydrochloride IV over 30-60 minutes on days 1 and 8 and carboplatin IV over 30-60 minutes on day 1. Treatment repeats every 21 days for 4 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients without metastatic disease undergo nephroureterectomy and lymph node dissection 21-60 days after completion of chemotherapy. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for 3 years.