RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells and shrink tumors so they can be removed during surgery. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy before surgery in treating women who have locally advanced, inflammatory, or large surgically removable breast cancer.
OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the toxicity of neoadjuvant capecitabine, cyclophosphamide, and epirubicin in women with locally advanced or inflammatory or large operable breast cancer. II. Determine the maximum tolerated dose of this regimen in this patient population. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter dose escalation study of capecitabine. Patients receive neoadjuvant cyclophosphamide IV and epirubicin IV on day 1 and oral capecitabine twice daily on days 1-14. Treatment continues every 21 days for a maximum of 6 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of capecitabine until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 3 or 2 of 6 patients experience dose limiting toxicity. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 3-33 patients will be accrued for this study.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Purpose
TREATMENT
Enrollment
15
Hopital Cantonal Universitaire de Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
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