Evaluation of Drug Resistance in Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer

Overview

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Some patients may develop a resistance to chemotherapy drugs. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to determine the reliability of a test for measuring drug resistance to paclitaxel in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

OBJECTIVES: I. Evaluate the proportion of patients with extreme, intermediate, and low drug resistance to paclitaxel using the Extreme Drug Resistance (EDR) Assay in patients with previously treated metastatic breast cancer. II. Assess response to paclitaxel therapy in patients who have undergone a pretreatment EDR assay. III. Assess time to tumor progression during paclitaxel therapy in patients who have undergone a pretreatment EDR assay. IV. Determine prospectively the predictive value of the EDR assay relative to clinical outcome by correlating assay results with clinical tumor response and time to tumor progression during paclitaxel therapy in these patients. OUTLINE: This is an open label, single arm, blinded study. Patients' tumor tissue samples are collected by excisional biopsy, core biopsy, or malignant fluid aspiration, then tested by the Extreme Drug Resistance (EDR) Assay to determine probability of drug resistance to paclitaxel. After successful completion of the EDR assay (approximately 7 days), patients receive paclitaxel by intravenous infusion over 1-3 hours; treatment is repeated every 3 weeks. Treatment continues until there is documented evidence of tumor progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients' clinical response to paclitaxel therapy is compared with the response predicted by the EDR assay. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: 100 patients will be accrued to this study.

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Eligibility

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