Cisplatin or Carboplatin, and Etoposide With or Without Sunitinib Malate in Treating Patients With Extensive-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer

Inclusion Criteria

• All patients must have histologically or cytologically documented small cell lung cancer
• Eligible disease stages: the extensive disease classification for this protocol includes all patients with disease sites not defined as limited stage; limited stage disease category includes patients with disease restricted to one hemithorax with regional lymph node metastases, including hilar, ipsilateral and contralateral mediastinal, and/or ipsilateral supraclavicular nodes; extensive stage patients are defined as those patients with extrathoracic metastatic, malignant pleural effusion, bilateral or contralateral supraclavicular adenopathy or contralateral hilar adenopathy
• All patients must have measurable disease:
• Measurable disease is defined as at least one lesion that can be accurately measured in at least one dimension (longest diameter to be recorded) as >= 20 mm with conventional techniques or as >= 10 mm with spiral computed tomography (CT) scan
• Lesions that are considered non-measurable, which would make the patient not eligible, include the following:
• Bone lesions
• Leptomeningeal disease
• Ascites
• Pleural/pericardial effusion
• Lymphangitis cutis/pulmonis
• Abdominal masses that are not confirmed and followed by imaging techniques
• Cystic lesions
• No prior chemotherapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC)
• Radiation therapy must have been completed at least one week before initiation of protocol therapy
• Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC) performance status:
• Phase IB: 0-1
• Phase II: 0-2
• No "currently active" second malignancy other than non-melanoma skin cancers
• No history of brain metastases, spinal cord compression, or carcinomatous meningitis
• No ongoing cardiac dysrhythmias, atrial fibrillation, or QTc interval >= 500 msec; the use of agents with proarrhythmic potential (e.g., quinidine, procainamide, disopyramide, sotalol, probucol, pedridel, haloperidol, risperidone, indapamide, flecainide) is not recommended while on protocol therapy
• Patients with class I New York Heart Association (NYHA) are eligible; patients with a history of class II NYHA are eligible, provided they meet the following criteria:
• Patients with a history of class II heart failure who are asymptomatic on treatment
• Patients with prior anthracycline exposure
• Patients who have received central thoracic radiation that included the heart in the radiotherapy port
• Patients with a history of class III or IV NYHA heart failure within 12 months prior to registration are not eligible
• Additionally, no myocardial infarction, severe/unstable angina, coronary/peripheral artery bypass graft or stenting, cerebrovascular accident including transient ischemic attack, or pulmonary embolism within the last year
• Patients with hypertension that cannot be controlled by medications (> 150/100 mmHg despite optimal medical therapy) are not eligible
• Patients who require use of therapeutic doses of coumarin-derivative anticoagulants such as warfarin are excluded, although doses of up to 2 mg daily are permitted for prophylaxis of thrombosis; Note: Low molecular weight heparin is permitted provided the patient's prothrombin time (PT) international normalized ratio (INR) is = = 1,500/ul
• Platelets >= 100,000/ul
• Creatinine clearance >= 70 ml/min
• Total bilirubin =< 1.5 mg/dl
• Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) =< 2.5 x upper limit of normal (ULN) (patients w/ liver metastases may have AST/ALT =< 5 x ULN)
• Partial thromboplastin time (PTT) =< 1.5 x ULN