Neo-Adjuvant Study in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Patients

Ixabepilone and capecitabine combination has demonstrated to be an active regimen in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) after failing an anthracycline and a taxane regimen. Cetuximab is active in tumors that express epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with demonstrated activity in head and neck and colorectal tumors. A proportion of breast cancers are known to express EGFR. Cetuximab's mechanism of action suggests the possibility of efficacy in breast cancer patients, and several studies show that it may be efficacious in Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC). This study seeks to evaluate Ixabepilone alone or in combination with cetuximab as a possible way to increase antitumor activity. In this randomized open-label phase II trial, patients will be randomized equally between 1) Ixabepilone or 2) Ixabepilone plus Cetuximab. Randomization will be stratified by disease stage (T1N1-3M0 or T2-4 N0-3M0). The study's primary objective is to determine the pathologic complete response rate (pCR) (breast and axilla) of Ixabepilone versus Ixabepilone when combined with cetuximab in patients with invasive breast adenocarcinoma T1N1-N3M0 or T2-4 N0-3M0 disease who are triple negative and who are candidates for preoperative chemotherapy. The secondary objectives are to evaluate overall objective response rate in both treatment groups and to assess safety and toxicity of each regimen. There are also tertiary, exploratory objectives that will hopefully allow for the correlation of biomarker expression and response to treatment.