This is a multi-center randomized study, double-blind phase 3 trial. Approximately 222 patients are planned to be enrolled in Phase 3.~Docetaxel, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide (TAC) will be used as the chemotherapy in this study. These agents are among the most active and commonly used chemotherapeutic agents employed for treating patients with breast carcinoma. In particular, TAC chemotherapy has been used for the adjuvant treatment of HER2 negative early breast cancer patients with node positive disease as well as for node negative breast cancer patients who have a high risk of recurrence.~Plinabulin is a novel small molecule that is being developed for the mitigation of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. Administered by IV infusion on the same day of (approximately 1 hour after) chemotherapy (TAC), plinabulin will be given in a single dose per cycle. Plinabulin is being studied to see if it is a convenient alternative to G-CSF, pegfilgrastim, for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia.~In this trial, treatment will be double blinded, approximately 222 patients with breast cancer are expected to be enrolled. Patients are randomly assigned to one of the treatment arms, with 111 patients enrolled in each arm, with the arm designation and planned intervention as follows:~Arm 1: TAC + pegfilgrastim (6.0 mg) + placebo matching plinabulin.~Arm 2: TAC + pegfilgrastim (6.0 mg) + plinabulin (40 mg).~Cycles 1 to 4 will consist of TAC (or TC for Cycles 2 to 4) administered IV on Day 1 every 21 days. Patients will receive a single dose of plinabulin or placebo IV over 30 minutes (±5 minutes) in a double blinded manner, 30 minutes after the end of the TAC (or TC for Cycles 2 to 4) infusion. On Day 2 of each cycle (≥24 hours after completing chemotherapy), all patients will receive a single dose of pegfilgrastim (6.0 mg).~The long-term safety follow-up through patients contacts by phone calls, letters or electronic means; or medical records reviews will be conducted to all subjects approximately every 6 months up to 5 years to monitor long term safety of plinabulin.
The primary purpose of this study is to compare the percentage of patients with Duration of Severe Neutropenia (DSN) =0 in patients treated with:~Docetaxel, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide (TAC) + pegfilgrastim versus Docetaxel, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide (TAC) + combination plinabulin/pegfilgrastim~Severe neutropenia is an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) <0.5 × 10^9/L.~Docetaxel, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide (TAC) will be used as the chemotherapy in this study.