Epirubicin, Docetaxel, and Capecitabine in Treating Women With Stage IIIA or Stage IIIB Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVES: Primary * Describe the pathologic response rate in chemotherapy-naive women with locally advanced breast cancer (stage IIIA or IIIB) after 6 courses of sequential neoadjuvant therapy with epirubicin hydrochloride and a combination of docetaxel with capecitabine . * Describe the adverse events of sequential epirubicin hydrochloride and a combination of docetaxel with capecitabine in this patient population. Secondary * Identify by transcriptional profiling the differential expression of candidate gene products that confer chemosensitivity to epirubicin hydrochloride, docetaxel, and capecitabine. * Correlate the differential expression of known genetic polymorphisms of intracellular regulators involved in the metabolism of epirubicin hydrochloride, docetaxel, and capecitabine with adverse events and tumor response. * Assess individual patient variation in clinical (toxicity and/or activity), in pharmacologic (pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic parameters), and/or biologic (correlative laboratory study results) responses to epirubicin hydrochloride, docetaxel, and capecitabine due to genetic differences in proteins involved in drug response (transport, metabolism and/or mechanism of action). OUTLINE: Patients receive epirubicin hydrochloride IV on day 1. Treatment repeats every 2 weeks for 3 courses. Beginning 2 weeks after last dose of epirubicin hydrochloride, patients receive docetaxel IV over 1 hour on day 1 and oral capecitabine twice daily on days 1-14. Treatment with docetaxel and capecitabine repeats every 3 weeks for 3 courses. Patients then undergo surgery. Blood samples are collected at baseline for pharmacogenetic studies. Tumor tissue samples are collected at baseline and periodically during treatment for correlative laboratory studies. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 3 months until disease progression and then every 6 months for up to 5 years.