Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care cancer clinics across Illinois and Wisconsin have joined a new personalized medicine clinical trial investigating a potential treatment for people with chemotherapy-resistant breast cancer prior to surgery.
“Preoperative, or neoadjuvant, chemotherapy has become a staple in high-risk breast cancer treatment,” said hematologist and oncologist Rubina Qamar, MD, Advocate Aurora Research Institute’s principal investigator for the study. “Patients with high-risk, triple-negative breast cancer treated with the state-of-the-art combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy have a 37% chance of still having residual cancer at time of surgery. And, unfortunately, we know that people with substantial residual disease at the time of surgery have a much lower chance of staying cancer-free.”
The clinical trial, known as PERSEVERE, will use a method often referred to as “liquid biopsy” to detect residual cancer after chemotherapy. In a liquid biopsy, doctors draw blood to check for the presence of cancer cells that have broken off from a tumor and are now circulating in the bloodstream. Known as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing, this method can be used to detect many types of cancer, including breast cancer, and to identify genomic markers that can potentially direct treatment.
Depending on their blood test results, study participants will be assigned to one of several different potential treatment regimens tailored to the data revealed by their individual liquid biopsy.
The aim of the study is to test whether someone with a specific type of cancer known as triple-negative breast cancer who is treated with a genomically personalized approach prior to surgery has a higher chance of becoming cancer-free than someone treated with the standard generalized treatment.
Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for 10% to 15% of all breast cancers, according to the American Cancer Society.
“Triple-negative breast cancer tends to grow and spread faster, has fewer treatment options, and typically results in worse outcomes than other breast cancers,” said Melissa Kadar, Director of the Research Institute’s Center of Excellence in Cancer Research. “In light of these challenges, it is even more important for research to look for potential improvements to treatment.”
Only 40% to 50% of people with triple-negative breast cancer who have residual disease prior to surgery remain cancer free after two years.
Researchers across the country plan to enroll approximately 200 participants in the clinical trial, “Circulating tumor DNA enriched, genomically directed post-neoadjuvant trial for patients with residual triple negative breast cancer (PERSEVERE),” which is managed by the Hoosier Cancer Research Network with collaboration from Genentech, Inc., Pfizer, Foundation Medicine, Indiana University, Epic Sciences and the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.
The clinical trial is taking place at all Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care cancer clinics in Illinois and Wisconsin.
To learn more about our research, visit aah.org/research.