Carboplatin and Paclitaxel Albumin-Stabilized Nanoparticle Formulation Before Surgery in Treating Patients With Locally Advanced or Inflammatory Triple Negative Breast Cancer

This phase II trial studies how well carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel before surgery work in treating patients with triple negative breast cancer that is inflammatory or has spread from where it started to nearby tissue or lymph nodes. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Giving chemotherapy before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To test the hypothesis that carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel (paclitaxel albumin-stabilized nanoparticle formulation) therapy will demonstrate a promising neoadjuvant pathologic complete response (pCR) rate for eligible patients. II. To test the hypothesis that carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel therapy will demonstrate a promising Symmans 0-1 pathological response rate for eligible patients. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I To evaluate the overall survival and event-free survival of eligible patients treated with carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel neoadjuvant chemotherapy. II. To evaluate the toxicities and tolerance of carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel therapy in this patient population. III. To evaluate the role of laboratory correlates in response, toxicity and survival endpoints. IV. To procure tissue and perform analysis of gene and protein expression profiles of pre-treatment primary tumor (estimated success rate: 80%) and residual tumors (25%) and lymph nodes including the study of tumor niche (50%), studying sequential assessment of cellular characteristics and gene and protein expression profiles. V. To identify specific mutations in tumor deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in comparison to adjacent tissue and germ line DNA procured prior to, during, and subsequent to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and to detect/measure, as feasible, the presence of such mutations in fragmented circulating DNA from plasma, and to correlate these mutations with the presence/characteristics of circulating tumor cells in order to identify prognostic and predictive indicators of persisting/relapsed disease and targets for therapy. VI. To assess ribonucleic acid (RNA) (using Mammaprint/Blueprint and 44,000 Agilent platform gene array), (micro) miRNA and exosome and protein profiles in tumor, adjacent tissue and plasma prior to, during, and at completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in order to establish prognostic and predictive indicators of outcome, markers of persistent/relapsed disease, and targets for therapy. VII. To analyze tumor DNA and genomic DNA from plasma by microarray and reverse transcriptase (RT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis to assess copy numbers/single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)/genomic polymorphisms in genes for the purposes of establishing prognostic and predictive indicators of outcomes; markers of persistence/relapse disease, drug resistance, and drug metabolism; and targets of therapy. VIII. To assess the prognostic and predictive value of conventional pathological features (stage, estrogen and progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor \[HER-2\] status, presence of lymphovascular invasion, high grade tumor status) in comparison to such values derived from the molecular approaches. IX. To procure tumor from the primary and definitive surgical specimen for the purpose of establishing breast cancer stem cell lines. X. To procure blood samples for the purpose of identifying and characterizing circulating tumor cells. OUTLINE: Patients receive carboplatin intravenously (IV) over 30 minutes on day 1 and paclitaxel albumin-stabilized nanoparticle formulation IV over 30 minutes once weekly. Treatment repeats every 28 days for 4 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for 4 years and then every 6 months for 1 year and then periodically thereafter.