Standard Chemotherapy Compared With High-Dose Chemotherapy Plus Peripheral Stem Cell Transplant in Treating Women With Advanced or Inflammatory Breast Cancer

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining chemotherapy with peripheral stem cell transplantation may allow the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more tumor cells. It is not yet known whether high-dose chemotherapy plus peripheral stem cell transplantation is more effective than standard chemotherapy for breast cancer. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of standard chemotherapy with that of high-dose chemotherapy plus peripheral stem cell transplantation in treating women who have advanced breast cancer or inflammatory breast cancer.