Vorinostat in Treating Patients With Stage IV Breast Cancer Receiving Hormone Therapy

Inclusion Criteria

• Histologically or cytologically proven diagnosis of breast cancer
• Stage IV disease
• Patient has previously derived clinical benefit from endocrine therapy, but is no longer deriving benefit to endocrine therapy in the opinion of the treating investigator
• At least one site of measurable disease, as defined by the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) criteria
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-2
• Female patient is post menopausal as defined by one of the following; free from menses for >= 2 years, surgically sterilized, FSH and estradiol in post-menopausal range AND surgical absence of uterus OR chemotherapy induced amenorrhea lasting > 1 year OR currently on ovarian suppression
• Female patient of childbearing potential has a negative urine or serum (beta human chorionic gonadotropin [B-hCG]) pregnancy test within 14 days prior to receiving the first dose of vorinostat
• Male patient agrees to use two barrier methods of contraception or abstain from intercourse for the duration of the study
• Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) >= 1,500/mcL
• Platelets >= 50,000/mcL
• Hemoglobin >= 9 g/dL
• Prothrombin time or international normalized ratio (INR) = = 30 mL/min
• Creatinine clearance should be calculated per institutional standard
• Serum total bilirubin = 0.47 seconds, or uncontrolled arrhythmia
• Type I diabetes mellitus; patients with type II diabetes mellitus will be included as long as their glucose can be controlled to under 200 mg/dL
• Patient is pregnant or breast feeding, or expecting to conceive or father children within the projected duration of the study
• Patient with a "currently active" second malignancy, other than non-melanoma skin cancer and carcinoma in situ of the cervix, should not be enrolled; patients are not considered to have a "currently active" malignancy if they have completed therapy for a prior malignancy, are disease free from prior malignancies for > 5 years or are considered by their physician to be at less than 30% risk of relapse
• Patients with known active viral hepatitis
• Patient has a history or current evidence of any condition, therapy, or laboratory (lab) abnormality that might confound the results of the study, interfere with the patient's participation for the full duration of the study or is not in the best interest of the patient to participate