Trial of Neoadjuvant Docetaxel ± Metronomic Capecitabine/CTX Followed by FEC in Women With Operable Triple Negative Breast Cancer

This multi-center, open-label, phase II randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the efficacy of docetaxel(T) combined with metronomic cyclophosphamide/capecitabine (mCX) followed by fluorouracil /epirubicin/cyclophosphamide (FEC) versus T followed by FEC as neoadjuvant chemotherapy in treating women with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), and to study the anti-tumor immune effect of metronomic neoadjuvant chemotherapy. 186 stage M0 TNBC patients who had a primary tumor \> 2cm by imaging or an axillary lymph node \> 2cm by imaging are randomly enrolled to receive neoadjuvant T combined with mCX (3 cycles) followed by FEC (3 cycles) or T (3cycles) followed by FEC (3 cycles) before surgery. The primary end point is pathological complete response (pCR) rate, and the secondary end points include: clinical response rate, toxicities, breast-conserving rate, Ki67 and CD31 reduction rate, changes in the percentages of peripheral blood or tumor microenvironmental regulatory T cells (Treg), T helper cells (Th), CD8+ T cell, and tumor-specific CTL, and changes in tumor microenvironmental immune cytokines. Once there is a significant statistical difference in terms of pCR rate between two groups, 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) and 3-year overall survival (OS) will be included in the secondary end points. The aims of this study are to determine whether the neoadjuvant T combined with metronomic CX followed by FEC can significantly increase the pCR rate in TNBC with acceptable toxicity, and to explore the anti-tumor immune effect of metronomic neoadjuvant chemotherapy.