RATIONALE: Collecting and storing samples of tissue, blood, and sputum from patients with cancer to study in the laboratory may help the study of cancer in the future.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to collect and store tissue, blood, and sputum samples from patients with lung cancer to be tested in the laboratory.

OBJECTIVES:

• Establish a central lung cancer specimen repository to serve as a resource for current and future scientific studies.
• Correlate clinicopathologic information in the Southwest Oncology Group clinical data base with results of studies using the repository.
• Test new hypotheses with the specimens in the repository.

OUTLINE: Peripheral blood, sputum, and biopsy specimens are collected from patients. Tissue samples are frozen and stored in a lung cancer specimen repository for later use in correlative studies.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Not specified

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Enrolled on one of the following Southwest Oncology Group protocols:

  • SWOG-8805, SWOG-9019, SWOG-9416, SWOG-9509, SWOG-S9900, SWOG-S0003, SWOG-S0023, SWOG-S0126, SWOG-S0435, SWOG-S0220, SWOG-S0222, SWOG-S0327, SWOG-S0310, SWOG-S0339, SWOG-S0342, SWOG-S0341, SWOG-S0509, SWOG-S0429, or SWOG-S0124

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Not specified

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Not specified

Lung cancer patients registered to SWOG lung protocols.