Biomarkers in Tissue Samples From Patients With Breast Cancer Treated With Bevacizumab

OBJECTIVES: Primary * To demonstrate that vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGFA) haplotypes that are associated with an increased VEGFA expression will predict superior outcome for patients with metastatic breast cancer receiving bevacizumab in ECOG-E2100 (but not for the control arm). * To demonstrate that candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) will further improve the predictive capacity of outcome (efficacy and toxicity) in patients enrolled in ECOG-E2100. * To demonstrate that tumor VEGFA amplification or borderline amplification (estimated 14% frequency) will predict superior outcome for patients with metastatic breast cancer receiving bevacizumab on ECOG-E2100 whereas those with VEGFA deletion (estimated 11% frequency) will predict inferior outcome. * To demonstrate that VEGFA amplification/deletion will not predict outcome in the control arm of ECOG-E2100. Secondary * To demonstrate that tumor VEGFA amplification will predict increased protein expression as ascertained by IHC. * To demonstrate that a combined algorithm calculated from tumor-specific variability (VEGFA amplification/deletion) and host-specific variability (SNPs) will optimally predict outcome (efficacy) with bevacizumab in patients enrolled on ECOG-E2100. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Previously collected tumor-derived DNA is analyzed for VEGFA amplification/deletion and haplotype as biomarkers for outcome after bevacizumab treatment. Gene expression, polymorphism, protein expression analysis, and IHC are performed on the samples.