A Randomized Trial Comparing the Safety and Efficacy of Adriamycin and Cyclophosphamide Followed by Taxol (AC-T) to That of Adriamycin and Cyclophosphamide Followed by Taxol Plus Herceptin (AC-T+H) in Node-Positive Breast Cancer Patients Who Have Tumors That Overexpress HER2

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare the cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel with or without trastuzumab (Herceptin®) in women with operable, node-positive breast cancer that overexpresses HER2.
• Compare the effect of these regimens on disease-free and overall survival of these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to number of positive nodes (1-3 vs 4-9 vs 10 or more), administration of hormonal therapy (tamoxifen vs anastrozole vs neither), surgery/radiotherapy (lumpectomy plus breast irradiation vs lumpectomy plus breast irradiation plus regional irradiation vs mastectomy without radiotherapy vs mastectomy with radiotherapy), paclitaxel schedule (every 3 weeks vs weekly), and participating center. Patients are randomized to one of two treatment arms.

• Arm 1: Patients receive doxorubicin IV and cyclophosphamide IV over 30 minutes on day 1. Treatment repeats every 21 days for 4 courses. Approximately 3 weeks after the last course, patients receive paclitaxel IV over 3 hours every 21 days for 4 courses OR paclitaxel IV over 1 hour once weekly for 12 weeks (12 doses).
• Arm 2: Patients receive chemotherapy as in arm I and trastuzumab (Herceptin®) IV over 90 minutes on day 1 of the first course of paclitaxel. Trastuzumab is then administered IV over 30 minutes weekly for 51 weeks, beginning on day 8.

All patients with estrogen or progesterone receptor-positive tumors receive hormonal therapy* for at least 5 years, beginning within 3-12 weeks after the last dose of chemotherapy. Patients who have received prior tamoxifen for prevention may be treated with additional tamoxifen for no more than 5 years at the discretion of the principal investigator (PI).