Phase III Study of Adriamycin/Taxotere Versus Adriamycin/Cytoxan for the Adjuvant Treatment of Node Positive or High Risk Node Negative Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine whether doxorubicin/docetaxel (DD) will improve disease-free survival and overall survival when compared to doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide (DC) in women with lymph node positive (1-3 positive nodes) or high risk lymph node negative breast cancer. II. Compare the toxicity of DD to DC in this patient population.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized study. Patients are stratified by node status (positive vs negative), menopause status (pre- vs post), estrogen receptor (ER) status/progesterone receptor (PR) status (ER/PR unknown vs ER+/PR+ vs ER+/PR- vs ER-/PR+ vs ER-/PR-). Patients in arm I receive doxorubicin IV plus docetaxel IV over 1 hour every 3 weeks for 4 treatment courses. Patients in arm II receive doxorubicin IV plus cyclophosphamide IV every 3 weeks for 4 treatment courses. All patients who are estrogen receptor or progesterone receptor positive receive oral tamoxifen daily for 5 years following chemotherapy. Some patients may also receive radiotherapy following chemotherapy. Patients are followed every 3 months if patient is less than 2 years from study entry; every 6 months if patient is 2-5 years from study entry; and every 12 months if patient is greater than 5 years from study entry.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 2778 patients will be accrued for this study within 2.5 years.