New hope for aggressive breast cancer: targeted combo before surgery

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients must have histological confirmation of breast carcinoma * Patients must have invasive breast cancer (IBC), confirmed according to international consensus criteria: * Onset: Rapid onset of breast erythema, edema, and/or peau d'orange, and/or warm breast, with or without an underlying breast mass * Duration: History of such findings no more than 6 months * Extent: Erythema occupying at least 1/3 of whole breast * Pathology: Pathologic confirmation of invasive carcinoma * Patients must have an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-1 * Patients must have negative HER2 expression on immunohistochemistry (IHC) (defined as 0 or 1+) or fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis; if HER2 is 2+, negative HER2 expression must be confirmed by FISH (HER2/cep17 ration \< 2, and/or copy number less than 6); ER and PgR expression should be less than 10% * Patients have left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) \>= 50% by multigated acquisition scan (MUGA) or echocardiogram before study randomization * Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) \>= 1.5 x 10\^9/L * Platelet count \>= 100 x 10\^9/L * Hemoglobin \>= 9.0 g/dL * Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) =\< 3.0 x upper limit of normal (ULN) * Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) =\< 3.0 x ULN * Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) =\< 2.5 x ULN * Total bilirubin =\< 1.5 x ULN * Creatinine (Cr) =\< 1.5 mg/dL x ULN * Creatinine clearance (CrCl) \>= 50 mL/min calculated by the Cockroft-Gault * Patients have the ability and willingness to sign written informed consent * Patients of childbearing potential (women who are postmenopausal for \< 1 year, not surgically sterilized, or not abstinent), have a negative urine pregnancy test, and agree to the consistent and correct use of one of the following acceptable methods of birth control: male partner who is sterile before the female subject's entry into the study and is the sole sexual partner for that female subject; intrauterine device, oral contraception, or barrier methods, including diaphragm or condom with a spermicide Exclusion Criteria: * Stage IV disease, if the metastatic sites are not amendable for local therapy (i.e. radiation and/or surgery), and are not candidates for breast surgery will not be eligible * History of radiotherapy for current breast cancer diagnosis * History of recent malignancies \< 5 years (except for cured non-melanomatous skin cancer or cured cervical carcinoma in situ) * Known positive test(s) for human immunodeficiency virus infection, hepatitis C virus, acute or chronic active hepatitis B infection * History of extensive interstitial lung disease, e.g., pneumonitis or pulmonary fibrosis or any evidence of extensive interstitial lung disease on baseline chest computed tomography (CT) scan * Other known other significant medical or psychiatric condition that would make assessment of toxicity or efficacy difficult * Uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, ongoing or active infection, symptomatic congestive heart failure, unstable angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmia, or psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements * Patients with a peripheral neuropathy \> grade 1 * Patients with a history of New York Heart Association class 3 or 4 heart failure, or history of myocardial infarction, unstable angina, or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) within 6 months of protocol registration * Patients have a history of prior therapy with carboplatin * Patients have received a cumulative dose of doxorubicin of greater than 360 mg/m\^2 or epirubicin of greater than 640 mg/m\^2 * Patients have had prior radiotherapy for primary breast carcinoma or axillary lymph nodes * Patients have history of diagnosed interstitial lung disease