Active clinical trials for "Breast Neoplasms"

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood from patients with cancer and from healthy participants in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that may occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. It may also help doctors predict how well patients will respond to systemic therapy. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is looking at DNA in predicting response after systemic therapy in women with metastatic breast cancer.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood and tumor tissue in the laboratory from patients with cancer and blood from healthy participants may help doctors learn more about changes that may occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is looking at cancer-related protein biomarkers in the blood and tumor tissue of patients with cancer and in the blood of healthy participants.

RATIONALE: Chemotherapy may cause blood clots to form in the thigh, leg, and lung. This study may help doctors understand how often blood clots occur in patients undergoing chemotherapy. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying how often blood clots occur in patients undergoing chemotherapy for solid tumors, including colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, or metastatic breast cancer

The primary objective of this study is to determine if trabecular or cortical volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) change over time in postmenopausal breast cancer patients who are prescribed Anastrozole, as measured by pQCT at the proximal and distal radius and tibia.

Subjects and Methods: 303 patients who had already had the diagnosis of breast cancer and had already been treated at the Ambulatory of Botucatu School of Medicine were selected. The measuring tool used for the level of physical activities was the International Physical Activities Questionnaire (IPAQ-short version), validated by the World Health Organization - Physical Activities and Health International Committee (1998).

We propose to quantitate endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in early and advanced breast cancer patients. Peripheral blood will be drawn from the eligible patients. Different type of EPCs will be isolated from the blood and quantitated.

This is a multicenter, prospective observational cohort study (OCS) designed to follow patients with locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer in the United States. Two cohorts will be included: Patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-negative) disease receiving their first cytotoxic chemotherapy and/or targeted therapy (approximately 825 patients) Patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR-positive) disease receiving their first hormonal therapy for advanced disease (approximately 425 patients) Patients who have received any chemotherapy for advanced disease more than 8 weeks prior to enrollment to this OCS will not be eligible. A total of approximately 1,250 patients will be enrolled. Approximately 150 study sites will be activated in order to achieve complete enrollment by December 2010.

Significant progress has been made in the treatment of women with Her2 positive breast cancer who are treated with trastuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody that inhibits Her2. Despite this progress not all patients with Her2 positive metastatic breast cancer respond to trastuzumab and patients with metastatic disease who do respond usually develop progressive disease during treatment with trastuzumab. The mechanism of such resistance is unknown. We propose to investigate the mechanism of trastuzumab resistance in Her2 positive breast cancer. The hypothesis to be examined in the basic science section of this study is that IRS-1 and IRS-2 are modifiers of HER2 signaling and that these adapter proteins could be predictive indicators of treatment response to Herceptin in patients that are candidates for this targeted therapy. The connection between IRS-1 and IRS-2 expression and Herceptin response and clinical outcome in HER2 positive human breast tumors will be evaluated to determine if IRS expression correlates with resistance to Herceptin therapy and with the aggressive behavior of these tumors. This study will establish if the IRS proteins influence HER2 function in tumors and if they are predictive markers for evaluating treatment options for HER2 positive patients.

RATIONALE: Developing a questionnaire that can be used to assess the quality of life among people who have a family member with cancer may help the study of cancer in the future. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying quality of life among families with a member who is a cancer patient.

Accurate targeting of treatment sites should increase local control by radiation therapy for breast-cancer lumpectomy patients. Currently, ultrasound localization is used for prostate cancer patients to locate the prostate before daily radiation treatments. There is now documented evidence that the lumpectomy site does change during the external radiation therapy. Thus, treatment efficacy should be increased by localizing the target, monitoring volume changes, and adjusting the radiation target prior to the boost radiation dose.