A Randomized Phase III Trial of Radiation Therapy and Cisplatin Alone or in Combination With Intravenous Triapine in Women With Newly Diagnosed Bulky Stage IB2, Stage II, IIIB, or IVA Cancer of the Uterine Cervix or Stage II-IVA Vaginal Cancer

• Patient has a new, unrated histologic diagnosis of stage IB2 (\> 4 cm), II, IIIB or IVA squamous, adenocarcinoma, or adenosquamous carcinoma of the uterine cervix (FIGO 2009) or stage II-IVA squamous, adenocarcinoma, or adenosquamous carcinoma of the vagina not amenable to curative surgical resection alone; the presence or absence of para-aortic lymph node metastasis will be based on pre-therapy 18F-FDG PET/CT; NOTE: if the baseline 18F-FDG PET/CT identifies hypermetabolic para-aortic disease, such patients will NOT be eligible; the patient must be able to tolerate imaging requirements of an 18F-FDG PET/CT scan

• Patient must provide study specific informed consent prior to study entry

• Patient must have a Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) performance status of 0, 1, or 2 or equivalent

• Absolute neutrophil count \> 1,500/uL

• Platelets \> 100,000/uL

• Hemoglobin \> 10 g/dL

• Total bilirubin \< 2.0 mg/dL

• Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase \[SGOT\])/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase \[SGPT\]) \< 2.5 X institutional upper limit of normal

• Prothrombin time (PT)/activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) \< 1.5 X institutional upper limit of normal

• Creatinine =\< 1.5 mg/dL to receive weekly cisplatin

⁃ Patients whose serum creatinine is between 1.5 and 1.9 mg/dL are eligible for cisplatin if the estimated creatinine clearance (CCr) is \>= 30 ml/min; for the purpose of estimating the CCr, the formula of Cockcroft and Gault for females should be used

• Patient does not have uncontrolled diabetes mellitus (i.e., fasting blood glucose \> 200 mg/dL)

• Patient has a life expectancy of greater than 20 weeks

• Patient does not have known brain metastases (testing optional)

• Patient does not have known human immunodeficiency virus syndrome (HIV, testing optional); known HIV-positive patients receiving combination antiretroviral therapy are ineligible because of the potential for pharmacokinetic interactions with triapine

• Patient does not have a known allergy to compounds of similar or biologic composition as triapine

• Patient does not have known glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency as the condition interferes with triapine antidote metabolism (G6PD testing optional)

• Patient is not actively breastfeeding (or has agreed to discontinue breastfeeding before the initiation of protocol therapy)