Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy With or Without Epoetin Alfa in Treating Patients With Stage IIIA or Stage IIIB Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

OBJECTIVES: * Determine the efficacy of epoetin alfa in maintaining hemoglobin levels in patients with stage IIIA or IIIB non-small cell lung cancer when treated with chemoradiotherapy. * Compare the time to local and systemic progression in patients receiving chemoradiotherapy with or without epoetin alfa. * Compare tumor response rate and overall survival in patients treated with these regimens. * Compare the toxicity of these regimens in these patients. * Compare quality of life in patients treated with these regimens. * Compare the number of transfusions in patients treated with these regimens. OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to Karnofsky performance status (90-100% vs 60-80%), weight loss (no more than 5% vs 6-10%), and baseline hemoglobin (women 11.0-12.4 g/dL and men 11.0-13.4 g/dL vs women 12.5-15.0 g/dL and men 13.5-15.0 g/dL). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. * Arm I: Beginning 7-10 days before the start of chemoradiotherapy, patients receive epoetin alfa subcutaneously once weekly for 8 weeks. Patients receive paclitaxel IV over 1 hour and carboplatin IV over 30 minutes once weekly for 7 weeks. Patients undergo radiotherapy 5 days a week for 7 weeks for a total of 33 treatments. Treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. * Arm II: Patients receive paclitaxel, carboplatin, and radiotherapy as in arm I. Quality of life is assessed at baseline, at completion of chemoradiotherapy, every 3 months for 1 year, every 4 months for 1 year, and then every 6 months for 3 years. Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year, every 4 months for 1 year, and then every 6 months for 3 years. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 202-232 patients (101-116 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study within 1.7-2 years.