Standard Chemotherapy Compared With High-Dose Combination Chemotherapy and Peripheral Stem Cell Transplantation in Treating Women With Breast Cancer

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 1999-06-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: Female

Summary

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Peripheral stem cell transplantation may allow doctors to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more tumor cells. It is not yet known which treatment regimen is more effective for breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of standard cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil with that of high-dose combination chemotherapy plus peripheral stem cell transplantation in treating women who have stage II or stage IIIA breast cancer.

• Phase: Phase 3
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Scottish Cancer Therapy Network
• Treatments: Cobalt; Cyclophosphamide; Doxorubicin; Fluorouracil; Liposomal doxorubicin; Methotrexate; Tamoxifen; Thiotepa

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically confirmed stage II or IIIA breast cancer with at least 4 positive axillary nodes Definitive resection required, preferably within 4 weeks prior to entry No overt residual axillary nodal carcinoma after surgery Hormone receptor status: Not specified

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: Over 18 Sex: Female Menopausal status: Not specified Performance status: ECOG 0 or 1 Hematopoietic: Absolute neutrophil count greater than 1,500/mm3 Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm3 Hemoglobin greater than 9 g/dL PT and aPTT normal Hepatic: Bilirubin normal (unless benign congenital hyperbilirubinemia) Normal liver biopsy required in patients with active hepatitis B or C Renal: Creatinine normal Cardiovascular: No active heart disease Normal wall motion on MUGA or echocardiogram Other: Adequate nutritional status (i.e., more than 1,000 calories/day orally) HIV negative No serious medical or psychiatric disease No second malignancy except: Basal cell skin cancer Carinoma in situ of the cervix Not pregnant Negative pregnancy test

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: At least 2 weeks since major surgery