Conditions: Breast Cancer
Keywords: stage I breast cancer stage II breast cancer stage IIIA breast cancer stage IIIB breast cancer stage IIIC breast cancer
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 45
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
RATIONALE: Zoledronate may delay or prevent bone marrow metastases in patients with breast cancer.

PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well zoledronate works in treating bone marrow micrometastases in women with stage I, stage II, or stage III breast cancer.

Detailed description:
OBJECTIVES:

Primary

* Determine the response of bone marrow micrometastases, as measured by immunocytochemistry/flow cytometry (IC/FC), during and after 2 years of treatment with zoledronate in women with stage I-III breast cancer.

Secondary

* Evaluate the effects of zoledronate on the bone osteoclast activation marker, n-telopeptide, in these patients.
* Evaluate the incidence of distant recurrences in high-risk women with early-stage breast cancer and bone marrow micrometastases who receive adjuvant zoledronate.

OUTLINE: This is a pilot study.

Patients receive zoledronate IV over 15 minutes once a month for 2 years in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 6 months.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 35 patients will be accrued for this study.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients women with early stage breast cancer and evidence of occult malignant cells in bone marrow aspirates following adjuvant chemotherapy will receive zoledronic acid (Zometa) 4mg, given intravenously over 15 minutes, once a month for two years.

Interventions: intervention 1: Zoledronic Acid
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Zoledronic acid is a new, highly potent, heterocyclic nitrogen-containing third generation bisphosphonate that has demonstrated 40- to 850- fold greater potency than pamidronate in preclinical models of bone resorption. The mechanism of action of nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates such as pamidronate and zoledronic acid appears to involve inhibition of the mevalonate pathway

Protocol document: