Active clinical trials for "Breast Neoplasms"

RATIONALE: New imaging procedures, such as MRI, may improve the ability to detect breast tumors. PURPOSE: Diagnostic study to determine the value of MRI in detecting breast tumors in women who have had suspicious mammographic or clinical examinations.

This proposal is for a pilot study of 20 premenopausal women at high risk for breast cancer development who will receive high dose vitamin D3, cholecalciferol 20,000 IU (2 capsules) weekly, or 30,000 IU (3 capsules) weekly, for 1 year. The primary objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of a 1-year intervention of vitamin D in this study population. Secondary objectives include evaluating the biologic effects of vitamin D supplementation on blood based and image-based biomarkers.

RATIONALE: New imaging procedures, such as single photon emission computed tomography, may help in learning how acupuncture affects serotonin levels in the brain of breast cancer survivors. PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the best way to visualize the effect of acupuncture on brain serotonin in breast cancer survivors.

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from peptides may help the body build an effective immune response to kill tumor cells that express HER2/neu. Biological therapies, such as GM-CSF, may stimulate the immune system in different ways and stop tumor cells from growing. It is not yet known whether vaccine therapy is more effective than GM-CSF in treating breast cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying vaccine therapy to see how well it works compared with GM-CSF in treating patients with breast cancer.

In this multi-center trial, Stage 1-3 patients having mastectomies or isolated lumpectomy with axillary node dissection will be randomly assigned to thoracic epidural or paravertebral anesthesia/analgesia, or to general anesthesia and morphine analgesia. Participants will be followed for up to 10 years to determine the rate of cancer recurrence or metastasis.

RATIONALE: Diagnostic procedures, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), may help in learning how well chemotherapy works to kill breast cancer cells and allow doctors to plan better treatment. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as epirubicin and docetaxel, may stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving chemotherapy before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying MRI in evaluating early response to chemotherapy in women receiving chemotherapy for infiltrating breast cancer.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as capecitabine and paclitaxel (albumin-stablized nanoparticle formulation, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed. PURPOSE: This phase II/III trial is studying how well giving capecitabine together with paclitaxel (albumin-stabilized nanoparticle formulation) works in treating women undergoing surgery for stage II or stage III breast cancer.

The purpose of this study is to prevent chemotherapy-related febrile neutropenia, prophylaxis with antibiotics and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) have proven efficacious [1-3]. G-CSF has only few side effects, but is expensive. In 2006, updated G-CSF guidelines conclude that primary G-CSF prophylaxis has clinical benefits for and should be offered to patients at a more than 20% risk of febrile neutropenia. Based on many positive and few negative trials, one can consider the use of taxanes as standard of care in the adjuvant setting in node-positive breast cancer. Taxanes (with or without anthracyclines) have an increased risk for febrile neutropenia. The updated guidelines and changes in daily clinical practice will have a significant impact on the investigators health care resources. There is a higher risk of febrile neutropenia for the first chemotherapy cycle compared to subsequent cycles in small cell lung cancer patients. Also in advanced breast cancer the majority of first observed episodes of febrile neutropenia occur in the initial chemotherapy cycles Irrespective of tumour type or chemotherapy regimen, the risk of febrile neutropenia is highest during the first two cycles of chemotherapy. Thereafter, the risk rapidly declines, and the benefit of G-CSF largely seems to disappear. So, in order to improve the cost-effective administration of primary G-CSF prophylaxis, it is justified to assess whether G-CSF prophylaxis can be limited to the first two chemotherapy cycles as compared to the current practice of continuous G-CSF prophylaxis.

RATIONALE: New diagnostic procedures, such as vibro-acoustography imaging, may be an effective method of diagnosing breast cancer. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying how well vibro-acoustography imaging works in diagnosing breast masses in women with a breast mass or breast cancer.

To evaluate the antitumor activity following treatment with IPI-504 in patients with breast cancer.