Pembrolizumab and Chemotherapy Treatment or no Treatment Guided by the Level of TILs in Resected Early-stage TNBC

Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phasePhase 2
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18+
SponsorUNICANCER

About this trial

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a group of tumors that occurs mainly in young, premenopausal women and accounts for 10-20% of breast cancers. Over the past decade, the incidence of women diagnosed with early-stage TNBC has significantly increased due to the widespread use of screening mammography. Treatment of patients with localized TNBC mainly involves surgery and (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy. However, the benefit of chemotherapy may be controversial in patients with early-stage TNBC defined by small size and absence of lymph node involvement, and with significant tumor lymphocyte infiltration.

The ETNA study is a phase II trial designed to evaluate a chemotherapy de-escalation strategy in patients with TNBC T1b/c N0M0 and stromal TILs (sTILs) ≥ 30%. ETNA comprises two cohorts defined according to the level of TILs and the age of patients. Patients aged \> 40 years with 30% ≤ sTILs \< 50% and those aged ≤ 40 years with 30% ≤ sTILs \< 75% will be included in the cohort 1 and will receive adjuvant pembrolizumab 200 mg every three weeks for 9 cycles and Paclitaxel 80 mg/m² weekly for 12 cycles. Patients aged \> 40 years with sTILs ≥ 50% and those aged ≤ 40 years with sTILs ≥ 75% will be included in cohort 2 and will not receive adjuvant treatment, they will undergo standard surveillance every six months.

Eligibility criteria

Qualifiers

Understand, sign, and date the written informed consent form prior to any protocol- specific procedures performed,

Men and women aged ≥ 18 years,

Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 or 1,

Histologically confirmed and radically removed pT1b/c N0M0 TNBC as defined according to AJCC TNM stage-8th version,

Disqualifiers

History of invasive malignancy ≤ 3 years prior to signing informed consent except for adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer,

Having received prior chemotherapy or targeted therapy within the past 12 months,

Has a prior history of DCIS and/or LCIS that was treated with any form of systemic, hormonal therapy, or radiotherapy to the ipsilateral breast; subjects who had their DCIS/LCIS treated only with surgery and/or contralateral DCIS treated with radiotherapy are allowed to enter the study,

Having received prior therapy with an anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, or anti-PD-L2 agents or with an agent directed to another co-inhibitory T-cell receptor (e.g., CTLA-4, OX-40, CD137),

Trial design

Treatments tested in this trial

  • Pembrolizumab 25 mg/ml
  • Paclitaxel injection

Treatment groups

354 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groups

Sponsors and collaborators

UNICANCER

Lead sponsor

MSD France

Collaborator

SOLTI Breast Cancer Research Group

Collaborator

Gustave Roussy, Cancer Campus, Grand Paris

Collaborator

Vall Hebron Insitut Recerca

Collaborator