Active clinical trials for "Breast Neoplasms"

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Treating a patient's T cells in the laboratory may help the T cells kill more tumor cells when they are put back in the body. Giving laboratory-treated T cells after chemotherapy may be an effective treatment for breast cancer. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving laboratory-treated T cells after second-line chemotherapy works in treating patients with HER2/neu-negative metastatic breast cancer.

RATIONALE: Aromatase inhibitor therapy is used in treating postmenopausal women who have hormone-dependent breast cancer. It is not yet known what effect aromatase inhibitor therapy has on blood vessel function. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying the effect of aromatase inhibitor therapy on blood vessel function in postmenopausal women with breast cancer.

This trial studies the effects on quality of life and on time to second progression of the sequence endocrine therapy-capecitabine versus the sequence capecitabine-endocrine treatment. It is anticipated that the time on study (which is the time between randomization and the discontinuation of the second treatment in the sequence) will be similar for both arms of the study. The quality of life during this period, however, could be better in the patient group receiving the most effective first agent in the sequence. If this proves to be true, the conventional wisdom that endocrine therapy should be continued until no further endocrine options remain, must be abandoned.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as ixabepilone, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Hydroxychloroquine may help ixabepilone work better by making tumor cells more sensitive to the drug. PURPOSE: This phase I/II trial is studying the side effects and best dose of ixabepilone given together with hydroxychloroquine and to see how well they work in treating patients with metastatic breast cancer.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the cardiac safety of Caelyx in patients with metastatic breast cancer who have previously received chemotherapy with anthracyclines.

This is a research study in 2 parts assessing the following parameters of the combination of the study drug called bosutinib, and a drug called capecitabine: the safety, how well the subject's body handles the study drug, and preliminary anti-tumor activity as treatment for different types of cancers in part 1, and breast cancer only in part 2. In part 1, subjects will receive bosutinib and capecitabine daily at different dose levels of each drug in order to determine the highest tolerated dose of the combination study treatment. In part 2, subjects will receive bosutinib and capecitabine at this highest tolerated dose to see how well the study treatment works to treat breast cancer. In addition, genetic research testing (research analyses involving genes and gene products) will be performed on biological samples from subjects.

This is a study to assess whether healing suggestions and enhancing visual milieu (large fine art photographs) will improve mental and physical measures of well-being and recovery from surgery. The study will compare breast cancer patients undergoing identical skin sparing mastectomy and reconstruction surgery randomized to three groups: Usual care control group Usual care and exposure to fine art photograph Usual care and fine art photograph and guided visualization tapes.

One of the basic principles of cancer chemotherapy is that these drugs act exclusively or mainly on cells in cycle. Estrogens have been shown to increase the fraction of breast cancer cells in cycle. Tamoxifen on the other hand, decreases the proliferative fraction and has been shown to negatively impact on the results of adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer when given concomitantly. A number of previous studies have attempted estrogenic recruitment of cancer cells (into cell cycle) to increase the efficacy of chemotherapy in locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer. Although some studies showed an increase in response rates in the recruitment arm, there was no benefit in time to progression or survival in any of the studies. These results may have been due to the inadequate sample size of the studies and advanced stage disease (with presumably higher fraction of inherently chemoresistant cells). The present study is designed to test the hypothesis that estrogenic recruitment of micrometastatic disease in operable breast cancer will increase the efficacy of standard adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery. The intervention arm of the study will involve administration of short duration estrogen prior to each cycle of adjuvant chemotherapy. The end-points are disease free and overall survival.

RATIONALE: Sorafenib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth and by blocking blood flow to the tumor. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving sorafenib together with paclitaxel may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying the side effects of giving sorafenib together with paclitaxel and to how well it works in treating patients with metastatic breast cancer.

RATIONALE: Sorafenib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking blood flow to the tumor and by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Estrogen can cause the growth of breast cancer cells. Aromatase inhibition therapy using letrozole, anastrozole, or exemestane may fight breast cancer by lowering the amount of estrogen the body makes. It is not yet known whether sorafenib is more effective than a placebo when given together with letrozole, anastrozole, or exemestane in treating metastatic breast cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying how well sorafenib works compared with a placebo when given together with letrozole, anastrozole, or exemestane in treating postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive and/or progesterone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer.