Sirolimus and Gold Sodium Thiomalate in Treating Patients With Advanced Squamous Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine the maximally tolerated dose (MTD) of ATM (gold sodium thiomalate) plus sirolimus. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To describe the adverse event profile associated with this treatment combination. II. To preliminarily evaluate the response rate, time to progression, progression-free survival and overall survival of patients treated with this treatment combination. TERTIARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate tumor biomarkers of protein kinase C (PKCι) and mammalian Target Of Rapamycin (mTOR) signaling activity as predictors of response to ATM/sirolimus therapy. II. To evaluate the use of surrogate biomarkers of PKCι and mTOR inhibition in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) to monitor response to ATM/sirolimus therapy. OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation study. Patients receive sirolimus orally (PO) once daily (QD) on days 1-28 and gold sodium thiomalate intramuscularly (IM) on days 1, 8, 15, and 22. Courses repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up for 3 months.