Clinical Trial Name - Celecoxib in Treating Postmenopausal Women Who Are Undergoing Surgery for Invasive Breast Cancer

RATIONALE: Celecoxib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking the enzymes necessary for tumor cell growth. PURPOSE: This randomized phase I trial is studying the side effects of celecoxib in treating postmenopausal women with invasive breast cancer who are scheduled to undergo surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

OBJECTIVES: Primary - Determine whether celecoxib suppresses aromatase activity in postmenopausal women with invasive breast cancer planning to undergo surgery. Secondary - Correlate celecoxib-mediated inhibition of aromatase activity with levels of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and HER-2/neu and estrogen receptor status in these patients. - Determine the effect of this drug on histology, Ki67, RNA expression profile by microarray analysis, PI3-K, AKT and ERK1/2 MAP kinase activities, and PGE_2 levels in these patients. - Determine whether any observed biological effect of this drug is dose-dependent in these patients. - Identify collateral targets (COX-2-independent) of this drug in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a randomized study. Patients are randomized to 1 of 3 treatment arms. - Arm I: Patients receive oral celecoxib twice daily for 1-3 weeks (according to the duration between biopsy and surgery) in the absence of unacceptable toxicity. - Arm II: Patients receive a higher dose of oral celecoxib as in arm I. - Arm III: Patients do not receive treatment. All patients undergo definitive surgery. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 75 patients (25 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study within 2-3 years.