About this trial
In Sweden, approximately 7000 women are diagnosed with hormone-sensitive breast cancer annually. According to international and national guidelines, most of these women are recommended anti-hormonal therapy for five to ten years to improve prognosis. Tamoxifen, one of the most widely used anti-hormonal agents globally, reduces the risk of recurrence by 40% and breast cancer mortality by 30%.
Tamoxifen is a pro-drug that undergoes hepatic metabolism to form endoxifen and other active metabolites. Variability in metabolic capacity affects therapeutic efficacy: poor metabolisers produce insufficient endoxifen and other active metabolites, risking therapeutic failure, while ultrarapid metabolisers generate excessive amounts, leading to intolerable adverse effects. Today, 30-50% of patients discontinue treatment prematurely due to severe side effects, resulting in suboptimal outcomes.
Currently, tamoxifen is uniformly prescribed at a daily dose of 20 mg, and so far, no clinical trials have tested whether individualised dosing could enhance adherence and improve survival outcomes. The primary objective is to evaluate whether individualised tamoxifen dosing reduces discontinuation rates and enhances patient outcomes in breast cancer treatment.
Eligibility criteria
This trial does not accept healthy volunteersQualifiers
Patients with primary breast cancer, recommended for adjuvant tamoxifen treatment with or without concomitant goserelin
Premenopausal or perimenopausal, defined according to SOC for therapy decision
Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) WHO Performance Scale 0 - 2
Participants must use non-hormonal contraception during the trial.
Disqualifiers
Previous use of tamoxifen, endoxifen, or aromatase inhibitors.
Current use of warfarin.
Not willing to abstain from strong and moderate CYP2D6 inhibitors or CYP3A4 inducers during the tamoxifen treatment
Current pregnancy, breastfeeding, or already at start of tamoxifen planning to become pregnant within the next two years
Trial design
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Individual dose of tamoxifen
DrugEach subject starts their treatment with the standard dose 20 mg tamoxifen daily by oral intake. During visits 2 (3 months), 3 (six months) and 4 (twelve months), the investigator will either let the patient remain on 20 mg tamoxifen or individualise the dose. The investigator may change the daily tamoxifen from 20 mg per day to: a halved dose to 10 mg, or a doubled dose to 40 mg. The recommendation for oral intake of tablet(s) tamoxifen for a daily dose of 10, 20 or 40 mg is accordingly: for 10 mg: one tablet (20 mg) every two days for 20 mg: one tablet (20 mg) every day for 40 mg: two tablets (20 mg) every day.
Standard adjuvant therapy of tamoxifen
DrugThe global standard dose for everyone is 20 mg orally once per day. Each subject undergoes treatment with the standard dose 20 mg daily by oral intake of one tablet, with no possibility of dose adjustment during the trial.
Treatment groups
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
Discontinuation of tamoxifen.
The primary outcome is discontinuation of tamoxifen. This will be declared when any of the following four criteria are satisfied: * Agreement between patient and doctor that the patient will discontinue tamoxifen. * Patient notifies doctor that she has discontinued tamoxifen. * Patient-reported tamoxifen tablet intake of zero tablets for 13 consecutive weeks. * Patient refuses dose of tamoxifen as recommended per protocol by their clinician.
Secondary outcomes
Patient reported outcomes.
At baseline and two weeks before the doctor's appointment at 3, 6 and 12 months after start of tamoxifen therapy all patients will answer the POWER symptom burden questionnaire. Patients will be answering questionnaires yearly year 2-5 from start of tamoxifen. The purpose is evaluate treatment-related side effects (e.g., tamoxifen). The symptom burden questionnaire includes the BCPT Eight Symptom Scale (BESS) (derived from the 42-item Breast Cancer Prevention Trial checklist), which is a 30-item, 5-point Likert-type, self-report tool measuring symptom distress in breast cancer patients over the past four weeks. It covers eight specific domains (hot flashes, nausea, bladder/vaginal problems, pain, cognitive, weight, arm problems). Higher scores indicate higher symptom distress, where patients rate how "bothered" they were on a scale of 0 (Not at all) to 4 (Extremely).
Quality of life questionnaire
At baseline and two weeks before the doctor's appointment at 3, 6 and 12 months after start of tamoxifen therapy all patients will answer the quality-of-life questionnaire designed for this study. A prespecified set of answers from the questionnaire will be available for the doctor and patient to discuss at the appointment. Patient will be answering the same questionnaire yearly year 2-5 in the study. The results from the questionnaires will not be discussed with the patient but analysed at the end of the study.
Concentration of circulation plasma metabolites
Tamoxifen and the metabolites 4-OH-tamoxifen, N-DM-tamoxifen, and endoxifen will be analysed in plasma at each blood collection time point. For patients in the intervention arm, the endoxifen concentration will be accessible in the patient eCRF and discussed at the doctor's visit for decision on the appropriate dose. For patients in the control arm, neither the patient nor the doctor will have access to the endoxifen concentrations during the trial. Endoxifen concentrations in the control arm will remain pseudonymised and stored on servers without access for investigators or relevant study personnel until end-of-trial.
Invasive disease-free survival (iDSF)
iDSF measures the time from randomized treatment or surgery until the first occurrence of an invasive cancer recurrence, a new primary invasive cancer, or death from any cause. Study site will report first recurrence, local or distant during the patients 5 years in the study. For long-term follow-up the information about first recurrence or death will be collected from the National Cancer Registry.
Other outcomes
Number of participants with genetic polymorphisms in germline DNA
Measure genetic polymorphism in germline DNA and relate it to the primary endpoint and other secondary and exploratory endpoits, e.g. discontinuation, (z)-endoxifen concentrations, and side effects. It will be explored if, and to what extent, genetic polymorphism in germline DNA is contributing information that could be used in the interpretation of the primary and secondary findings.
Number of biomarkers of potential use for therapeutic drug monitoring
Exploratory analysis will be done after the primary analysis, in plasma collected at baseline and follow-up blood drawls, and stored at the Karolinska Institutet Biobank. Exploratory analysis will be used to identify biomarkers of potential use for therapy effect, dose-response, side effects and tolerability, and heterogeneity of drug response. Exploratory analyses will also be used for deconvolute dominant phenotypes and markers and predictors of heterogeneity. Exploratory analyses will, among others, include endogenous hormones, proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, extracellular vesicles, ctDNA, cfDNA, miRNA and siRNA.
Sponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
Karolinska Institutet
Lead sponsor
Swedish Cancer Society
Collaborator
Region Stockholm
Collaborator
The Swedish Breast Cancer Association
Collaborator
The Sjöberg Foundation
Collaborator
The Cancer Research Foundations of Radiumhemmet
Collaborator