Patients undergo radiotherapy once daily and receive oral capecitabine twice daily on days 1-5 and carboplatin IV over 30 minutes and paclitaxel IV over 1 hour on day 2. Treatment repeats weekly for 5 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Beginning at week 9 (4 weeks after completing chemoradiotherapy), some patients may undergo surgery to remove the tumor. Patients with unresectable or gross residual disease after completing radiotherapy may continue to receive capecitabine, carboplatin, and paclitaxel for as long as the chemotherapy is beneficial.