High Dose Vitamin A Compound in Treating Participants With Resectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

This trial studies how well high dose vitamin A compound works in treating participants with non-small cell lung cancer that can be removed by surgery. Vitamin A compound may increase the number of germinal centers (immune centers that make antibodies mature) in tumor and lymph tissues which may be beneficial to patients with cancer.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To compare the percentage of resected cancers containing germinal centers (GCs) in patients who receive neoadjuvant vitamin A compound (vitamin A) to controls. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To compare the abundance of GCs in adjacent lymph nodes in patients who receive neoadjuvant vitamin A to controls. II. To compare histopathologic responses based on tumor necrosis in lung cancer patients who receive neoadjuvant vitamin A to controls. III. To compare overall survival of patients who receive neoadjuvant vitamin A to controls. EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES: I. To describe immunophenotypic changes of monocytes including myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in pre- and post-treatment blood samples. OUTLINE: Participants are randomized to 1 of 2 groups. GROUP I: Participants receive vitamin A compound orally (PO) for 7 consecutive days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Within 21 days of completing treatment, participants then undergo surgical resection. GROUP II: Participants undergo surgical resection. After completion of study treatment, participants are followed up for 30 days.