Cisplatin With or Without WEE1 Inhibitor MK-1775 in Treating Patients With Recurrent or Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients must have histologically or cytologically confirmed SCCHN that is recurrent and/or metastatic and not amendable to curative therapy by surgery or radiation; SCCHN originating from the following sites are eligible: oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, hypopharynx and paranasal sinus; for patients with a diagnosis of SCCHN of unknown origin, their eligibility must be reviewed and approved by the principal investigator * No prior systemic chemotherapy or WEE1 kinase inhibitor therapy for metastatic or recurrent disease will be allowed; patients are permitted to have received prior systemic chemotherapy as a part of the initial multimodality treatment for locally advanced disease if this treatment was completed more than 6 months prior to enrollment * Patients must have disease amenable to biopsy and must be medically fit to undergo a biopsy * Patients must have measurable disease, defined as at least one lesion that can be accurately measured in at least one dimension (longest diameter to be recorded) as \> 10 mm with computed tomography (CT) scan; indicator lesions must not have been previously treated with surgery, radiation therapy or radiofrequency ablation unless there is documented progression after therapy * Patients must have completed any previous surgery or radiotherapy \>= 4 weeks prior to enrollment * Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-2 (Karnofsky \> 60%) * Life expectancy of greater than 12 weeks * Leukocytes …