Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Histologically or cytologically documented non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

- Stage: IIIA or IIIB NSCLC; patients who present with N2 or N3 disease and an
undetectable primary tumor are also eligible

- Tumor Site: Thoracic disease without supraclavicular or contralateral hilar
involvement

- Pleural Effusion: When pleural fluid is visible on both computed tomography (CT) scan
and on a chest x-ray, a pleuracentesis is required to confirm that the pleural fluid
is cytologically negative

- Exudative pleural effusions are excluded regardless of cytology

- Patients with effusions that are minimal (i.e., not visible on chest x-ray) and
too small to safely tap are eligible

- Patients must have measurable disease

- Lesions that can be accurately measured in at least one dimension (longest
diameter to be recorded) as ≥ 2 cm with conventional techniques or as ≥ 1 cm
with spiral CT scan

- Patients with non-measurable disease are not eligible; all other lesions,
including small lesions (longest diameter < 20 mm with conventional techniques
or < 10 mm with spiral CT scan) and truly nonmeasurable lesions; lesions that
are considered non-measurable include the following:

- Bone lesions

- Leptomeningeal disease

- Ascites

- Pleural/pericardial effusion

- Inflammatory breast disease

- Lymphangitis cutis/pulmonis

- Abdominal masses that are not confirmed and followed by imaging techniques

- Cystic lesions

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- ECOG performance status 0-1

- No patients that are known to be pregnant or nursing

- Granulocytes ≥ 1,500/μl

- Platelet count ≥ 100,000/μl

- Bilirubin ≤1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)

- AST (SGOT) ≤ 2.0 times ULN

- Serum creatinine ≤ 1.5 times ULN OR calculated creatinine clearance ≥ 70 mL/min

- FEV-1 ≥ 1.2 L/sec or 50% predicted

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- No prior radiotherapy or chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

- No prior mediastinal or thoracic radiotherapy

- Patients with complete surgical resection of disease are not eligible, however;
patients with surgical resection and measurable gross residual disease present on
imaging are considered eligible