Gene Therapy in Treating Patients With Non-small Cell Lung Cancer That Cannot Be Surgically Removed

OBJECTIVES: * Evaluate the safety of multiple endobronchial treatments with adenovirus p53 bronchoalveolar lavage of a single lobe of the lung in patients with bronchoalveolar cell lung carcinoma. * Evaluate expression of the p53 gene and induction of apoptosis in tumor and normal tissues exposed to the virus in these patients. * Evaluate whether transbronchial administration of adenovirus p53 results in improved local tumor control in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a dose escalation study. Patients undergo biopsy and receive adenovirus p53 by bronchoalveolar lavage on days 1 and 15. Patients repeat biopsy on days 3 and 28. If there is evidence of clinical benefit or response without significant toxicity, patients may receive a maximum of 3 courses. Treatment beyond 3 courses must be approved by protocol investigator. Cohorts of 3 patients are treated at escalating dose levels of adenovirus p53. Patients in each cohort are followed for dose limiting toxicity (DLT) for 2 weeks after completion of one course before dose escalation proceeds in subsequent cohorts. If 1 of 3 patients at a dose level experiences dose limiting toxicity (DLT), then 2 additional patients are entered at the same dose level. If more than 1 of 5 patients experience DLT, the previous dose is the maximum tolerated dose (MTD). An additional 10 patients are treated at the MTD. Patients are followed every 3 months for the first 2 years, every 6 months for the next 3 years, and annually thereafter. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: There will be 15 patients accrued into this study over 1 year.