Positron Emission Tomography in Predicting Response in Patients Who Are Undergoing Treatment With Pemetrexed Disodium and Cisplatin With or Without Surgery for Stage I, Stage II, or Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Inclusion Criteria

• •DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Histologically or cytologically confirmed non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
• •Stage IB, II, IIIA, or IIIB (T4, N0-1) disease
• •* Staging must have been performed 4 weeks prior to study entry with a CT scan of chest, upper abdomen, and fludeoxyglucose F 18 (\^18FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) scan
• •* Mediastinal evaluation and staging based on combination of CT scan and FDG-PET results
• •If N1 or N2 nodes are found by FDG-PET or CT scan, metastases must be ruled out by brain MRI
• •Measurable and resectable disease
• •* T4 lesions must be resectable
• •Eligible for curative surgery
• •No malignant pleural effusion
• •PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Age
• •18 and over
• •Performance status
• •ECOG 0-1
• •Life expectancy
• •Not specified
• •Hematopoietic
• •Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,250/mm\^3
• •Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm\^3
• •Hepatic
• •Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• •AST and ALT ≤ 3.0 times ULN
• •Renal
• •Creatinine clearance ≥ 45 mL/min
• •Pulmonary
• •Adequate pulmonary reserve to undergo surgery
• •* Predicted FEV\_1 \> 0.8 L after resection
• •Other
• •Not pregnant or nursing
• •Negative pregnancy test
• •Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for 3 months after completion of study treatment
• •Able to take corticosteroids
• •Able to take folic acid or vitamin B\_12 supplements
• •No other malignancy within the past 5 years except nonmelanoma skin cancer or noninvasive cervical cancer
• •No concurrent serious or uncontrolled disorder that would preclude study participation
• •No type I diabetes mellitus
• •* Type II diabetes mellitus allowed if glucose is 80-150 mg/dL
• •PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• •Biologic therapy
• •No concurrent immunotherapy
• •No concurrent prophylactic filgrastim (G-CSF)
• •No concurrent thrombopoiesis-stimulating agents
• •Chemotherapy
• •At least 5 years since prior chemotherapy
• •Endocrine therapy
• •No concurrent anticancer hormonal therapy
• •Radiotherapy
• •No prior radiotherapy to the chest
• •No concurrent curative or palliative radiotherapy
• •Surgery
• •Not specified
• •Other
• •At least 30 days since prior non-FDA-approved or investigational agents
• •At least 5 days since prior aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (8 days for long-acting agents \[e.g., piroxicam\])
• •No other concurrent anticancer therapy
• •No other concurrent investigational agents