PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

      I. To test the hypothesis that carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel (paclitaxel albumin-stabilized
      nanoparticle formulation) therapy will demonstrate a promising neoadjuvant pathologic
      complete response (pCR) rate for eligible patients.

      II. To test the hypothesis that carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel therapy will demonstrate a
      promising Symmans 0-1 pathological response rate for eligible patients.

      SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

      I To evaluate the overall survival and event-free survival of eligible patients treated with
      carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

      II. To evaluate the toxicities and tolerance of carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel therapy in this
      patient population.

      III. To evaluate the role of laboratory correlates in response, toxicity and survival
      endpoints.

      IV. To procure tissue and perform analysis of gene and protein expression profiles of
      pre-treatment primary tumor (estimated success rate: 80%) and residual tumors (25%) and lymph
      nodes including the study of tumor niche (50%), studying sequential assessment of cellular
      characteristics and gene and protein expression profiles.

      V. To identify specific mutations in tumor deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in comparison to
      adjacent tissue and germ line DNA procured prior to, during, and subsequent to neoadjuvant
      chemotherapy, and to detect/measure, as feasible, the presence of such mutations in
      fragmented circulating DNA from plasma, and to correlate these mutations with the
      presence/characteristics of circulating tumor cells in order to identify prognostic and
      predictive indicators of persisting/relapsed disease and targets for therapy.

      VI. To assess ribonucleic acid (RNA) (using Mammaprint/Blueprint and 44,000 Agilent platform
      gene array), (micro) miRNA and exosome and protein profiles in tumor, adjacent tissue and
      plasma prior to, during, and at completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in order to establish
      prognostic and predictive indicators of outcome, markers of persistent/relapsed disease, and
      targets for therapy.

      VII. To analyze tumor DNA and genomic DNA from plasma by microarray and reverse transcriptase
      (RT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis to assess copy numbers/single nucleotide
      polymorphisms (SNP)/genomic polymorphisms in genes for the purposes of establishing
      prognostic and predictive indicators of outcomes; markers of persistence/relapse disease,
      drug resistance, and drug metabolism; and targets of therapy.

      VIII. To assess the prognostic and predictive value of conventional pathological features
      (stage, estrogen and progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor [HER-2]
      status, presence of lymphovascular invasion, high grade tumor status) in comparison to such
      values derived from the molecular approaches.

      IX. To procure tumor from the primary and definitive surgical specimen for the purpose of
      establishing breast cancer stem cell lines.

      X. To procure blood samples for the purpose of identifying and characterizing circulating
      tumor cells.

      OUTLINE: Patients receive carboplatin intravenously (IV) over 30 minutes on day 1 and
      paclitaxel albumin-stabilized nanoparticle formulation IV over 30 minutes once weekly.
      Treatment repeats every 28 days for 4 courses in the absence of disease progression or
      unacceptable toxicity.

      After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for 4 years and
      then every 6 months for 1 year and then periodically thereafter.