Active clinical trials for "Breast Neoplasms"

The improvement of the healing rates for breast cancer is based to an important part on the consistent use of so-called adjuvant ("supporting ") medicamentous therapies, including chemotherapy. However this success has a price due to still inaccurate knowledge of the individual risk of relapse: a high number of unnecessary therapies are applied (over-therapy!). The invasion factors uPA (plasminogen activator of the urokinase type) and PAI-1 (uPA inhibitor) were described extensively as strong and independent prognosis factors with high clinical relevance for patients with node negative breast cancer. Compared to clinical and pathological factors (further: "traditional factors ") they show better estimation of the relapse risk leading to an avoidance of redundant adjuvant chemotherapy and may thus essentially contribute to the improvement of the quality of life in these women. In this study we aim to evaluate, how large the portion of the patients with early, operable, node negative breast cancer will be, in whom, by improved low-risk identification through uPA/PAI-1, adjuvant chemotherapy can be omitted.

A randomised double-blinded study, in which the patients either get methylprednisoloneacetate or saline solution in the mastectomy cavity to evaluate the efficacy of methylprednisoloneacetate in preventing seroma in patients operated for primary breast cancer.

This study is to evaluate the effectiveness of 18F-FDG PET in following up of metastastic bone lesions and in predicting outcome for breast cancer patients after therapy. Primary outcome: Using 18F-FDG uptake to evaluate the metastatic bone status after treatment. The PET results will be compared with the results in Tc-99m MDP bone scintigraphy. Secondary outcome: Evaluate the relationship between the 18F-FDG uptake of the metastatic bone lesions and (1) breast cancer related tumor marker, (2) patients' survival.

The purpose of this study is to assess clinical outcomes after Letrozole treatment according to the estrogen receptor expression in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive breast cancer.

The aim of this study is to identify the determinants of cancer-related fatigue, and the long-term effect of the different adjuvants treatments will be explored. A prospective longitudinal study in women diagnosed for the first time with stage I-III breast cancer and who have undergone surgery, has been designed to meet the study aims.

RATIONALE: Learning about chronic pain in women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer may help improve the quality of life for these patients and may help doctors plan the best treatment. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying chronic pain in women who have undergone surgery for stage I, stage II, or stage III breast cancer.

RATIONALE: Gathering information over time from blood samples and measurements of activity, sleep, mood, and cognition may help doctors learn more about fatigue in breast cancer survivors and plan the best treatment. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying fatigue in breast cancer survivors.

RATIONALE: DNA analysis of tumor tissue may help doctors predict how patients who receive paclitaxel will respond to treatment. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is evaluating gene expression in predicting response to paclitaxel in patients with breast cancer.

Herceptin has shown significant improvement in breast cancer therapy and improved survival of patients over-expressing the HER-2 protein by 50%. However, Herceptin has shown to negatively affect the heart, and frequent heart monitoring with multiple gated acquisition (MUGA) scans is required. MUGA scans use radiation and are not very accurate. This study will use cardiac magnetic resonance images (CMRs) to evaluate heart function and compare to MUGA scans in patients receiving Herceptin for early-stage breast cancer. In addition, novel biomarkers will also be assessed at the same time to help identify possible patients at risk for developing heart toxicities.

Primary Objectives To identify hypermethylated genes in paired pretreatment breast tumor tissue and plasma samples from locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer patients using a known gene panel which includes APC1, Cyclin D2, RARB, RASSF1A, Twist, Hin1 and GSTP1. Rationale: We and others have determined the optimal panel of genes that are able to detect free DNA in plasma and serum. We will determine if the same panel of genes is effective for detecting tumor DNA in the plasma of locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer patients. Further, to determine if the methylation profile of the plasma DNA for these genes is the same or different from the primary tumor at presentation, we will analyze the primary tumor DNA from fresh frozen samples. To identify methylation pattern changes in the same subset of patients' plasma samples at 24 hours after completion of cycle 1 of chemotherapy and within 24 hours before cycle 2. Rationale: The optimal timing of sampling for methylation analysis that is reflective of the tumors response to chemotherapy is not known. How soon methylation changes are observed, whether they are high within 24 hours, as that tumor responds to chemotherapy, or whether changes can be observed only some time after one cycle of chemotherapy will be studied. (3) To also identify methylation pattern changes in breast tumor tissue after one cycle of chemotherapy. Rationale: To look for a correlation with plasma methylation patterns Secondary Objectives (1) To correlate our observed patterns of methylation pre- and post-treatment with clinical parameters such as clinical and/or radiological response and patient outcome.