Chemotherapy Followed by Surgery in Treating Women With Stage II or Stage III Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the clinical and pathological response of women with stage II-IIIB primary breast cancer to preoperative high dose chemotherapy with sequential doxorubicin and docetaxel. II. Determine the safety and toxicity of this regimen in these patients. III. Determine the rate of breast conservation surgery in these patients on this regimen. IV. Determine the clinical response of these patients to docetaxel after 3 courses of doxorubicin. V. Correlate any circulating tumor cells shed at time of surgery with clinical response and pathological findings in these patients. VI. Determine whether tumor response correlates with HER2/neu expression of the primary tumor. OUTLINE: Patients receive doxorubicin IV on days 1, 15, and 29, followed by docetaxel IV over 1 hour on days 43, 57, and 71. Filgrastim (G-CSF) is administered subcutaneously on days 3-10 of each 2 week course. Fourteen to 21 days following preoperative chemotherapy, patients undergo a radical, modified radical, or breast sparing surgery plus axillary lymph node dissection. Patients with disease progression or inoperable stage IIIB disease are removed from study. Following surgery, patients are stratified into one of three postoperative regimens: Stratum I: Patients with 0 lymph node metastases receive no further chemotherapy or receive cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF) for 4 courses. Stratum II: Patients with 1-3 lymph node metastases receive CMF for 4 courses. Stratum III: Patients with at least 4 lymph node metastases or stage IIIB may receive high dose chemotherapy with stem cell support. Two to 6 weeks after surgery, patients undergoing breast sparing procedure receive adjuvant radiotherapy. Patients undergoing mastectomy receive chest wall and supraclavicular radiotherapy if initial clinical stage is T3, T4, or N2. All other patients with N1 with greater than 4 lymph nodes and N3 should receive radiotherapy. Radiotherapy is administered 5 days a week for 5.5 weeks. Patients with positive estrogen or progesterone receptors receive oral tamoxifen daily for 5 years. Patients are followed every 3 months for 3 years, then every 6 months for 5 years, and then annually thereafter. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 27-35 patients will be accrued for this study.