Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Women With Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVES: * Compare the time to progression of women with primary breast cancer treated with fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide vs docetaxel, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide. * Compare the overall survival of patients treated with these regimens. * Compare the toxicity of these regimens in these patients. * Compare quality of life of patients treated with these regimens. OUTLINE: This is a randomized, open-label, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to metastatic axillary lymph node involvement (4-9 vs 10 or more), hormone receptor status (estrogen and/or progesterone) of the primary tumor (negative vs positive), and timing of adjuvant radiotherapy (intermittently after completion of 50% of chemotherapy vs after completion of all chemotherapy). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. * Arm I: Patients receive fluorouracil IV over 10-15 minutes and epirubicin IV over 15 minutes on days 1 and 8 and oral cyclophosphamide on days 1-14. Treatment repeats every 4 weeks for 6 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. * Arm II: Patients receive epirubicin IV over 15 minutes and cyclophosphamide IV over 1 hour on days 1, 21, 42, and 63 and docetaxel IV over 1 hour on days 84, 105, 126, and 147 in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Within 21 days after the completion of chemotherapy, patients undergo adjuvant radiotherapy 5 days a week for 5.5 weeks. Alternatively, patients may undergo radiotherapy intermittently after completion of 50% of chemotherapy. Upon completion of chemotherapy, patients with positive hormone receptor status (estrogen and/or progesterone) receive oral tamoxifen daily for 5 years. Additionally, patients with positive hormone receptor status who are under age 40 receive goserelin subcutaneously every 4 weeks for 2 years. Quality of life is assessed at baseline, prior to each course of chemotherapy, 4 weeks after completion of chemotherapy, 6 weeks after completion of radiotherapy, and then at 6 months after completion of chemotherapy. Patients are followed every 3 months for 3 years, every 6 months for 3 years, and then annually thereafter. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 446 patients (223 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study within 3 years.