Erlotinib Plus Chemotherapy for Treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Twenty percent of women with breast cancer have triple negative breast cancer. The standard treatment for triple negative breast cancer is typically a combination of chemotherapy, surgery, +/- radiation therapy. When treated with standard therapy women with triple negative breast cancer have a worse long term outcomes as compared to women who do not have triple negative breast cancer. Triple negative breast cancer cells usually have a surface marker called EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor). Women whose breast cancer cells have the EGFR surface marker have worse long term outcomes as compared to women whose tumors do not have the EGFR marker. Erlotinib (Tarceva) targets EGFR and is currently used for treatment of other cancers like lung and pancreas. This study will assess a combination of chemotherapy with erlotinib in women with triple negative breast cancer. For breast cancer patients who receive chemotherapy first and then get surgery, long-term survival is longer for women who do not have any microscopic cancer at the time of surgery. The primary objective of this study is to assess whether a combination of chemotherapy and erlotinib will result in no evidence of microscopic disease (pCR) at the time of surgery in greater than 20% of enrolled subjects. After completing all chemotherapy, patients will also receive maintenance erlotinib for 12 months. This is given to study the tolerability of maintenance Erlotinib and also to evaluate if maintenance erlotinib will decrease the rate of tumor recurrence.