Chemotherapy in Treating Women With Breast Cancer That Can Be Surgically Removed

Overview

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. It is not yet known if chemotherapy given before surgery is more effective with or without docetaxel given before or after surgery for breast cancer. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of chemotherapy using doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide with or without docetaxel in treating women who have stage II or stage III breast cancer.

OBJECTIVES: I. Compare overall and disease-free survival in patients with operable adenocarcinoma of the breast treated with 4 courses of preoperative doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (AC) alone vs 4 courses of preoperative or postoperative docetaxel (TXT) following 4 courses of preoperative AC. II. Evaluate whether the addition of preoperative TXT to preoperative AC results in improved rates of clinical and pathologic locoregional tumor response. III. Assess whether the addition of preoperative TXT to preoperative AC results in improved rates of breast conservation. IV. Assess whether postoperative TXT improves disease-free and overall survival in patients who receive preoperative AC, especially in certain subgroups of patients (e.g., those with pathologically positive nodes). OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to age (under 50 vs 50 and over), clinical tumor size (less than 2.1 cm vs 2.1-4.0 cm vs greater than 4.0 cm), clinical nodal status (negative vs positive), and participating center. Patients are randomized to one of three treatment arms. Arm I: Patients receive doxorubicin IV followed by cyclophosphamide IV over 30 minutes to 2 hours on day 1 every 21 days for 4 courses. Patients receive oral tamoxifen daily for 5 years, starting on day 1. After completion of chemotherapy, patients are offered surgery (e.g., lumpectomy with axillary node dissection, or modified radical mastectomy). Post-operative radiotherapy is given post-lumpectomy. Arm II: Patients receive doxorubicin IV followed by cyclophosphamide IV over 30 minutes to 2 hours followed by docetaxel IV over 1 hour on day 1 once every 21 days for 4 courses. Patients receive oral tamoxifen daily for 5 years, starting on day 1. After the completion of chemotherapy, surgery is offered (as in arm I). Radiotherapy follows surgery in post-lumpectomy patients. Arm III: Patients receive doxorubicin IV followed by cyclophosphamide IV over 30 minutes to 2 hours on day 1 every 21 days for 4 courses. Patients receive oral tamoxifen daily for 5 years, starting on day 1. After completion of chemotherapy, surgery is offered (as in arm I). After surgical recovery, docetaxel IV is given over 1 hour once every 21 days for 4 courses. Radiotherapy follows docetaxel in post-lumpectomy patients. Chemotherapy is repeated every 21 days for 4 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed every 6 months for 5 years, and then annually thereafter. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 2,400 patients will be accrued for this study within 5 years.

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