Carboplatin and Etoposide With or Without Oblimersen Sodium in Treating Patients With Extensive Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer

Inclusion Criteria:

* All patients must have histologically or cytologically documented small cell carcinoma of the bronchus; those who are being considered for combined modality therapy with chemotherapy and radiation are NOT eligible for this study
* 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 disease patients are defined as those patients with extrathoracic metastatic disease, malignant pleural effusion, bilateral or contralateral supraclavicular adenopathy or contralateral hilar adenopathy
* No prior chemotherapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC)
* Radiation therapy must have been completed at least 1 week before initiation of protocol therapy
* Measurable disease is defined as having at least one lesion that can be accurately measured in at least one dimension; the longest diameter of the lesion must be \>= 20 mm with conventional techniques or \>= 10 mm with spiral computed tomography (CT) scan; lesions that are not considered measurable include the following:

  * Bone lesions
  * Leptomeningeal disease
  * Ascites
  * Pleural/pericardial effusion
  * Abdominal masses that are not confirmed and followed by imaging techniques
  * Cystic lesions
  * Tumor lesions situated in a previously irradiated area
* Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-2
* Non-pregnant and non-nursing
* No active central nervous system (CNS) metastases; patients with CNS metastases will be eligible if they have completed a course of CNS radiotherapy if clinically indicated and recover from the toxicity of radiotherapy prior to enrollment, with a minimum of one week after completion of radiation
* No medical conditions such as uncontrolled infection (including human immunodeficiency virus \[HIV\]), psychiatric illness which would prevent the patient from giving informed consent, uncontrolled diabetes mellitus or cardiac disease which, in the opinion of the treating physician, would make this protocol unreasonably hazardous for the patient
* No patients with a "currently active" second malignancy other than nonmelanoma skin cancers; patients are not considered to have a "currently active" malignancy if they have completed therapy and considered by their physician to be at less than 30% risk of relapse
* Granulocytes \>= 1,500/ul
* Platelet count \>= 100,000/ul
* Bilirubin within normal limits
* Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase \[SGOT\]) =\< 2.5 x upper limits of normal
* Prothrombin time (PT) =\< 1.5 x upper limits of normal
* Partial thromboplastin time (PTT) =\< 1.5 x upper limits of normal
* Creatinine =\< 2 mg/dl or creatinine clearance \>= 60 ml/min