View clinical trials related to Breast Neoplasms.
Filter by:RATIONALE: New surgery techniques may lessen pain after breast surgery. It is not yet known whether tumescent mastectomy or standard mastectomy results in less pain in women with breast cancer. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying pain after tumescent mastectomy compared with pain after standard mastectomy in women with stage I, stage II, or stage III breast cancer.
Trastuzumab (Herceptin®) increases the chances of cure in patients with Her-2 overexpressing early breast cancer. Unfortunately, both the chemotherapy drugs used in this setting (anthracyclines) and trastuzumab are known to cause cardiac dysfunction in a proportion of patients. Patients who develop heart problems when taking trastuzumab might have to stop this treatment, which could jeopardise their chances of cure. N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT pro-BNP) is a cardiac biomarker that is measured in the blood, the levels of which have been shown to indicate the presence of heart failure. Some early research has suggested that there may be a correlation between elevated NT pro-BNP and heart damage due to cancer chemotherapy and also trastuzumab. Troponin is another substance measured in the blood that can indicate heart damage. Finally, certain variations in an individual's genetic makeup (called polymorphisms) could put them at increased risk of heart damage from trastuzumab. Here we are studying whether any of these factors (NT pro-BNP levels, troponin levels, or certain genetic polymorphisms) can accurately predict who is at highest risk of trastuzumab-related cardiotoxicity. The principal aim of this study is to evaluate the utility of NT pro-BNP as a predictive biomarker for the development of trastuzumab related cardiotoxicity (TRC). The investigators will also examine if single nucleotide polymorphisms in the HER2 gene or Fc-gamma-receptor genes predict for TRC.
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as paclitaxel albumin-stabilized nanoparticle formulation, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Colony-stimulating factors, such as pegfilgrastim, may increase the number of immune cells found in bone marrow or peripheral blood and may help the immune system recover from the side effects of chemotherapy. Monoclonal antibodies, such as bevacizumab, can block tumor growth in different ways. Some find tumor cells and kill them or carry tumor-killing substances to them. Others interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Bevacizumab may also may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking blood flow to the tumor. Giving these treatments before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed. It is not yet known which treatment regimen is more effective in treating women with breast cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying paclitaxel albumin-stabilized nanoparticle formulation, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and pegfilgrastim to compare how well they work when given with or without bevacizumab in treating women with inflammatory or locally advanced breast cancer.
RATIONALE: Everolimus 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. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well everolimus works in treating women with breast cancer that can be removed by surgery.
The objectives of this study are the following: 1. To assess safety and document local and systemic toxicity to the peptide vaccine (E75) in node-negative breast cancer patients. 2. To determine the optimal dose of the immunoadjuvant, GM-CSF, necessary to elicit an in vivo cellular immune response to the peptide vaccine yet limit toxicity. 3. To determine the optimal inoculation schedule to elicit an in vivo cellular immune response to the peptide vaccine. 4. To correlate the efficiency of eliciting an in vivo cellular immune response to the peptide vaccine with the degree of HER2/neu expression in the patient's tumor.
This phase II trial is studying how well acolbifene works in preventing cancer in premenopausal women at high risk of breast cancer. Chemoprevention is the use of certain drugs to keep cancer from forming. The use of acolbifene may stop cancer from growing or coming back.
Manual Lymphatic Drainage (massage therapy) with compression (wearing a tight sleeve on the arm) is the current standard of treatment for breast cancer related lymphedema (arm swelling). Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) was approved in 2006 by the FDA for professional and self/home treatment of lymphedema. LLLT is being offered as a treatment option in many lymphedema treatment settings, but there are few studies of the effectiveness of LLLT as a stand-alone lymphedema treatment or as a possible complementary lymphedema treatment modality to Manual Lymphatic Drainage. The objective of this proposed pilot study is to examine the impact of Advance Practice Nurse (ANP) administered LLLT, as both a stand-alone and complementary treatment, on arm volume, symptoms, and quality of life (QOL) in breast cancer survivors with lymphedema. Findings from this pilot study will be used to determine if LLLT has possible value in the treatment of lymphedema and warrants subsequent evaluation in a larger study.
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as docetaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Dietary supplements, such as phytochemicals, may stop or delay the development of breast cancer. It is not yet known whether giving docetaxel together with a phytochemical is more effective than giving docetaxel alone in treating patients with breast cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying how well giving docetaxel together with a phytochemical works compared with giving docetaxel alone as first- or second-line therapy in treating patients with breast cancer.
Objectives of the study: This randomized multicenter phase II study compares the tolerability, toxicity and quality of life between two high-dose chemotherapy regimens based on cyclophosphamide, thiotepa and carboplatin. Regimen A: full dose CTC. Regimen B: two courses of CTC (tCTC) with 33% dose reduction. Primary endpoints are: - Maximum degree of non-hematological toxicity. Secondary endpoint: - Total number of hospital days. - Quality of life evaluations during and following high-dose chemotherapy (up to 1 year). - Effect of therapeutic dose monitoring of CTC or tCTC. Trial design: This investigation is a multicenter prospective randomized phase II study. Patients eligible for the study will be identified after mastectomy or wide tumor excision with axillary clearance. Following randomization, all patients will receive four courses of cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and fluorouracil (FEC). Patients with early progressive disease at any time will be taken off study. The first chemotherapy course must be given as soon as possible after the surgical procedure, preferably within 3 weeks, but not later than 6 weeks since primary surgery. After the third or fourth FEC course G-CSF is administered and peripheral stem cells will be harvested. All radiation therapy (including radiation therapy administered as part of a breast conserving strategy) must be postponed until all chemotherapy has been concluded. Questionnaires, comprising the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL) and the Short-Form General Health Survey (SF-36) will be sent by mail before randomization, after chemotherapy, 3 months thereafter, further on every l/2 yr till at least 1 year follow-up as performed earlier. [6, 28, 29]. All patients will be randomized before the initiation of chemotherapy. - The 'standard' treatment arm will include 4 courses of FEC followed by high-dose chemotherapy with a single course of full dose CTC followed by peripheral stem cell reinfusion. Subsequently, conventional external beam radiotherapy to the breast or chest wall and to the regional lymph node areas including the axilla and the parasternal area will be administered following guidelines of the individual center. Patients with hormone receptor positive disease will go on to receive 5 years of tamoxifen. Patients with receptor positive disease who have not entered menopause will be advised to undergo ovarian ablation as well. - The 'experimental' treatment arm will be identical to the 'standard' one, except that the single course of CTC will be replaced by 2 courses of tCTC each followed by peripheral stem cell reinfusion.
The goal is to study the biology of aging in breast cancer patients, and to study the impact of chemotherapy on aging related blood biomarkers.