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

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