Inclusion Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Histologically confirmed breast cancer

- Disease must be confined to the breast and axillary nodes without detected
masses elsewhere

- No history of prior ipsilateral or contralateral invasive breast cancer

- Resected disease

- No more than 16 weeks since last surgery to remove the tumor

- No known clinical residual locoregional disease

- Margins must be negative for invasive breast cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ

- No locally advanced, inoperable breast cancer including any of the following:

- Inflammatory breast cancer

- Supraclavicular node involvement

- Enlarged internal mammary nodes unless pathologically negative

- Synchronous bilateral invasive breast cancer (diagnosed in the past 2 months) allowed
if all tumors are hormone receptor-negative

- Must not be a candidate for endocrine therapy or standard chemotherapy

- Hormone receptor-negative disease

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- Female

- Menopausal status: postmenopausal

- ECOG performance status 0-2

- Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm^3

- Granulocyte count ≥ 1,500/mm^3

- WBC ≥ 3,000/mm^3

- AST and ALT ≤ 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)

- Bilirubin normal

- Creatinine clearance ≥ 50 mL/min

- Creatinine < 1.35 mg/dL

- No significant malabsorption syndrome or disease affecting gastrointestinal tract
function

- No myocardial infarction within the past 6 months

- No pulmonary embolism within the past 6 months

- No deep vein thrombosis within the past 6 months

- No New York Heart Association class III or IV heart disease

- LVEF ≥ 50% by echocardiography, radionucleotide ventriculography, or MUGA

- No evidence of acute ischemia by ECG

- No other malignancy within the past 5 years except adequately treated basal cell or
squamous cell skin cancer, carcinoma in situ of the cervix or bladder, or ipsilateral
or contralateral breast carcinoma in situ

- No active, uncontrolled infection

- No active hepatitis B or C virus infection

- No other chronic infection

- Patients must not have any of the following "geriatric syndromes":

- Dementia

- Delirium

- Major depression (as diagnosed by a psychiatrist)

- Recent falls

- Spontaneous bone fractures

- Neglect

- Abuse

- No evidence of medically relevant conduction system abnormalities that would preclude
study entry

- No other nonmalignant, uncontrolled systemic diseases, psychiatric illness, or
addictive or cognitive disorder that would preclude study participation or compliance

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- At least 4 weeks since prior raloxifene, tamoxifen citrate, or other selective
estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs)

- No concurrent recombinant human epoetin alfa or pegfilgrastim

- No prior neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapy for breast cancer except radiotherapy

- Concurrent trastuzumab (Herceptin®) allowed

- No concurrent hormonal replacement therapy

- No other concurrent hormonal therapy (including estrogen, progesterone, androgens,
tamoxifen citrate, SERMs, or aromatase inhibitors) except for the following:

- Steroids for adrenal failure

- Hormones for non-disease-related conditions (e.g., insulin for diabetes)

- Intermittent dexamethasone as an antiemetic

- No other concurrent investigational agents

- No concurrent bisphosphonates, except for the treatment of osteoporosis

- For patients who received prior anthracyclines, the following criteria must be met:

- Cumulative dose ≤ 240 mg/m² for conventional doxorubicin

- ≤ 140 mg/m² in case of prior doxorubicin and left chest radiotherapy (LCRT)

- Cumulative dose ≤ 400 mg/m² for epirubicin

- ≤ 230 mg/m² in case of prior epirubicin and LCRT