Testing the Addition of a New Anti-Cancer Drug, Triapine, to the Usual Chemotherapy Treatment (Cisplatin) During Radiation Therapy for Advanced-stage Cervical and Vaginal Cancers

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: I. To evaluate the efficacy of the experimental regimen of triapine (3AP), cisplatin, and radiation to increase overall survival relative to the standard/control regimen of cisplatin and radiation in women with uterine cervix or vaginal cancer. SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: I. To determine the relative progression-free survival impact of triapine-cisplatin radio-chemotherapy and cisplatin radio-chemotherapy. TERTIARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate incidence and severity of hematologic and gastrointestinal (GI) adverse events by radiation modality; image guided intensity modulated radiation therapy (IG-IMRT) versus conventional pelvic radiotherapy. (05/30/2017) II. To summarize and compare differences in acute adverse events (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events \[CTCAE\], version \[v\]4.0) by treatment arm and by radiation modality. (05/30/2017) III. To summarize and compare differences in chronic or late (\>= 30-days from off study treatment date) adverse events (CTCAE, v4.0) by treatment arm and by radiation modality. (05/30/2017) IV. To determine peripheral blood methemoglobin proportion before and after triapine infusion (optional for Arm 2 patients). V. To explore whether knowledge-based planning (KBP) can improve IG-IMRT plans compared to plans that would have been delivered without KBP, estimate the resulting toxicity reduction using normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models, and determine whether KBP should be a requirement for future IG-IMRT protocols. VI. To determine the post-therapy 3-month fludeoxyglucose F-18 (18F-FDG) PET/CT metabolic complete response rate by treatment arm VII. To compare acute toxicity and chemotherapy delivery for atlas-based IG-IMRT vs. positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT)-based IG-IMRT vs. conventional radiation therapy (RT), and assess the impact of treatment on changes in hematopoietic compensatory response. VIII. To develop and validate machine learning and radiomics techniques for dose accumulation, automated treatment planning, and prediction of treatment response. OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. ARM I: Patients receive cisplatin intravenously (IV) over 90 minutes on days 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, (and day 36 or 37 at the treating physician's discretion). Patients then undergo external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) (either conventional RT or intensity modulated radiation therapy \[IMRT\]) once daily (QD) 5 days a week for 25 fractions followed by low dose rate (LDR) or high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy according to institution's standards. Treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. ARM II: Patients receive cisplatin and undergo EBRT followed by brachytherapy as in Arm I. Patients also receive triapine IV over 2 hours on days 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26, 29, 31, and 33. Treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 1 and 3 months, every 3 months for 2 years, and then every 6 months for 3 years. The patient data from NCI #9434 will be merged with NRG-GY006 per the Protocol Analysis Plan.