Combination Chemotherapy With or Without Capecitabine and/or Trastuzumab Before Surgery in Treating Women With Stage I, Stage II, or Stage III Breast Cancer

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed unilateral or bilateral primary breast cancer

  • Meets 1 of the following staging criteria:

    • Clinical stage T4 or T3 disease
    • Clinical stage T1 and pathologic stage N+ by sentinel lymph node biopsy OR clinical stage T2, N+ disease AND estrogen receptor (ER) or progesterone receptor (PR) positive tumor
    • ER and PR negative tumor (T1-4, N0-3, M0)

• Disease confirmed by core biopsy

  • No fine-needle aspiration or incisional biopsy

• Bidimensionally measurable disease*

  • Tumor lesion palpable and measures ≥ 2 cm OR tumor lesion ≥ 1 cm in maximum diameter by sonography

    • For inflammatory disease, extent of inflammation can be used as measurable lesion NOTE: *In patients with multifocal or multicentric breast cancer, the largest lesion should be measured

• Candidate for adjuvant chemotherapy

  • No low- or moderate-risk patients who are doubtful candidates for adjuvant chemotherapy and do not fulfill the staging criteria

• Known HER-2/neu status by core biopsy

  • HER-2/neu positive tumor is defined as +3 by immunohistochemistry [IHC] OR positive by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)
• No evidence of distant metastasis

• Hormone receptor status:

  • ER- or PR-positive tumor OR ER- and PR-negative tumor

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• No male patients
• Menopausal status not specified
• Karnofsky performance status 80-100%
• Life expectancy ≥ 10 years (disregarding diagnosis of cancer)
• Normal cardiac function confirmed by ECG
• LVEF ≥ 55% by cardiac ultrasound
• Neutrophil count ≥ 2,000/mm^3
• Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin ≥ 10 g/dL
• Bilirubin normal
• AST and ALT ≤ 2.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
• Alkaline phosphatase (AP) ≤ 5 times ULN OR
• AP ≤ 2.5 times ULN AND AST and/or ALT ≤ 1.5 times ULN
• Creatinine ≤ 2 mg/dL
• Creatinine clearance ≥ 50 mL/min
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective nonhormonal contraception
• No motor or sensory neuropathy ≥ grade 2
• No other malignancy within the past 5 years except carcinoma in situ of the cervix or nonmelanoma skin cancer
• No New York Heart Association class II-IV congestive heart failure
• No coronary artery disease
• No history of myocardial infarction
• No uncontrolled arterial hypertension (i.e., blood pressure ≥ 160/90 mm Hg despite antihypertensive therapy)
• No rhythm abnormalities requiring permanent therapy
• No history of significant neurological or psychiatric disorders including psychotic disorders, dementia, or seizures that would preclude giving informed consent
• No active infection
• No active peptic ulcer
• No unstable diabetes mellitus or insulin-dependent type II diabetes mellitus
• No other serious illness or medical condition
• No known hypersensitivity reaction to investigational compounds or incorporated substances
• No definite contraindications for the use of corticosteroids
• No known dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase deficiency
• Must be fit for anthracycline/taxane-containing chemotherapy

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• No prior chemotherapy for any malignancy
• No prior radiation therapy for breast cancer

• No concurrent bisphosphonates during chemotherapy

  • Bisphosphonates allowed postoperatively
• No chronic treatment with corticosteroids unless it is initiated > 6 months prior to study entry and is given at low doses (≤ 20 mg methylprednisolone or equivalent)
• No concurrent amifostine during chemotherapy
• No concurrent cardioprotectors (e.g., dexrazoxane) during chemotherapy
• No concurrent sex hormone therapy
• No concurrent virostatic agents (e.g., sorivudine or brivudine)
• No concurrent aminoglycosides
• No other concurrent experimental drugs or anticancer therapy
• At least 30 days since prior participation in another clinical trial with any investigational (not marketed) drug