Active clinical trials for "Breast Neoplasms"

Persistent alopecia following adjuvant docetaxel for breast cancer is a side-effect that has been recently described. This pilot trial explores the capacity of a cooling cap (Elasto-gel) to prevent persistent alopecia in breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant docetaxel regimens.

The purpose of this study is to examine for changes in the bone scan after treating with zoledronic acid (Zometa™). This study is designed to show if intravenous (IV) bisphosphonates, which are infused by vein, such as pamidronate (Aredia™) or zoledronic acid (Zometa™), cause changes in the result of bone scans in women with metastatic breast cancer. Both bone scans and the IV bisphosphonates are components of routine care of women with breast cancer that has spread to the bone.

RATIONALE: Exercising regularly may lower the risk of breast cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized clinical trial is studying how well exercise prevents breast cancer in healthy young women.

RATIONALE: Osmotic blood-brain barrier disruption uses certain drugs, such as mannitol, to open the blood vessels around the brain and allow tumor-killing substances to be carried directly to the brain. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as methotrexate and carboplatin, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Monoclonal antibodies, such as trastuzumab, can block tumor growth in different ways. Some block the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Others find tumor cells and help kill them or carry tumor-killing substances to them. Trastuzumab may also help methotrexate and carboplatin work better by making tumor cells more sensitive to the drugs. Giving osmotic blood-brain barrier disruption together with methotrexate, carboplatin, and trastuzumab may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase I/II trial is studying the side effects and best dose of carboplatin when given together with methotrexate and trastuzumab after mannitol in treating women with breast cancer that has spread to the brain.

The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics of BIBW 2992, a dual, irreversible EGFR- and HER2-inhibitor, in two cohorts of patients with HER2-negative breast cancer after failure of no more than three regimen of prior chemotherapy.

RATIONALE: A computer-aided detection program may help doctors find breast cancer sooner, when it may be easier to treat, in women undergoing screening mammography. PURPOSE: This randomized clinical trial is studying how well computer-aided breast cancer detection works in women undergoing screening mammography.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as vinflunine and capecitabine, 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) may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving vinflunine together with capecitabine works in treating patients with previously treated metastatic breast cancer.

RATIONALE: Diagnostic procedures, such as thoracoscopic sentinel lymph node biopsy, may help find breast cancer that has spread to lymph nodes between the breasts. It may also help doctors plan the best treatment. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying how well thoracoscopic sentinel lymph node biopsy finds sentinel lymph nodes that are located between the breasts in patients with stage I or stage II breast cancer.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy has become the standard of care for breast cancer patients with large tumors in order to render them operable for mastectomy or, in some cases, for lumpectomy and radiation therapy. Building on this theme, several large hormonal therapies are extensively investigated in the neoadjuvant setting, together with biologic correlates for response and resistance. As a further extension, neoadjuvant therapies with biologic agents are now too, being investigated for biologic evidence of efficacy before large-scale clinical trials of thousands of patients are embarked on. The neoadjuvant setting is especially attractive for these studies for several reasons including early assessment of response to therapy, biopsiable access to the primary tumor, and considerable reduced sample sizes compared to those required in the adjuvant setting. In addition, clinical response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a validated surrogate marker for improved survival. It may be used to test the overall efficacy of neoadjuvant treatment regimens and mirrors the effect of therapy on micrometastases setting. In a recent study, good clinical response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy was the only independent variable, by multivariate analysis, associated with decreased risk of death. GW572016 is a new and promising dual tyrosine kinase inhibitor against HER1/2. Hundreds of patients were treated in phase I and II studies world-wide and results indicate that this reversible, oral small molecule is generally well-tolerated. Studies of neoadjuvant Trastuzumab indicate that HER2 interference leads to significant tumor regression even after 3 weeks of monotherapy. We aim to extend these findings with a novel agent, GW572016 that may be more effective, especially from its in vitro data, and to discover the true response rate to inhibiting HER1/2 signal transduction in breast cancer patients.

This is a phase I multi-center dose escalation study of the histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) HBI-8000 when given in combination with paclitaxel and trastuzumab in women with advanced or metastatic HER2+ breast cancer.