RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy with irinotecan and cisplatin followed by surgery in treating patients with stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Evaluate the efficacy of irinotecan based chemotherapy in patients with stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer.
• Investigate the phenotypic changes induced in the tumor by this treatment.

OUTLINE: Patients receive IV cisplatin over 30 minutes followed by IV irinotecan over 30 minutes on days 1, 8, 15, and 22. Treatment repeats every 6 weeks for 3 courses until disease progression. Once potential candidates for resectability are determined, patients undergo thoracotomy or concurrent chemotherapy/radiation therapy within 6 weeks of completing the last course of chemotherapy. Following resection, patients responding to chemotherapy receive 3 additional courses of IV carboplatin and paclitaxel over 3 hours. Patients may undergo local irradiation beginning with the second course of carboplatin and paclitaxel. Chemotherapy ceases if disease remains stable after 8 weeks.

Patients are followed every 3 months for the first year after treatment, then every 6 months thereafter for survival.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: This study will accrue 20 patients over 18 months.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed, previously untreated stage IIIa (T1-2 N2 M0) non-small cell lung cancer

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• Over 18

Performance status:

• ECOG 0-2

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,500/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3

Hepatic:

• Total bilirubin no greater than 1.5 mg/dL

Renal:

• Creatinine clearance at least 55 mL/min

Other:

• Not HIV positive
• No active infections
• Not pregnant or lactating
• Effective contraception required of fertile patients during study participation
• No coexisting medical condition

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• Not specified

Chemotherapy:

• No prior chemotherapy
• No concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

• Not specified

Radiotherapy:

• No prior radiation therapy
• No concurrent radiation therapy

Surgery:

• Not specified

Other:

• No concurrent use of investigational agents during study participation