Clinical trial · Interventional
Neu Direction: Testing the Efficacy of Adding HER Inhibition to Standard of Care in Metastatic MLH1-low Endocrine-resistant ER+/HER2- Breast Cancer
Neu Direction: A Single Center Phase II Randomized Clinical Trial to Assess the Efficacy of Adding HER Inhibition to Standard of Care in Patients With Metastatic MLH1-low Endocrine-resistant ER+/HER2- Breast Cancer
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if neratinib, an FDA-approved oral pan-HER2/3/4 inhibitor, improves disease control for participants with metastatic endocrine-resistant ER+/HER2-negative breast cancer. Neratinib is already approved for the treatment of HER2-postive breast cancers. The study will also learn about the safety of adding this drug to standard of care treatments. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does adding neratinib to standard of care systemic therapy improve disease control for patients with metastatic hormone-driven breast cancer that is resistant to endocrine therapy? 2. What side effects do participants have when adding neratinib to standard of care therapy? Researchers will compare standard of care endocrine therapy regimens with and without neratinib to see if neratinib improves control of treatment-resistant metastatic breast cancer that has continued to progress while eon first line endocrine therapy. Participants will: 1. Take standard of care endocrine therapy for metastatic endocrine-resistant breast cancer as determined by their medical oncologist or standard of care therapy with neratinib daily 2. Visit the clinic every 3 months for checkups, tests and imaging studies
Conditions
Conditions (3)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| ER+, HER2-, Metastatic Breast Cancer | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Metastatic Invasive Breast Cancer | Invasive Breast Carcinoma | CURATED_BROADER | 0.78 |
| Resistant Breast Cancer | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (3)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| CDK4/6 + Endocrine therapy | Drug | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Endocrine therapy may include one of the following therapies: letrozole, anastrozole, exemestane, tamoxifen or fulvestrant | Drug | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Neratinib + endocrine therapy | Drug | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- ACTIVE_COMPARATOR
- label
- Standard of Care
- description
- Standard of Care 2nd or 3rd line endocrine therapy with or without CDK4/6 inhibitor
- interventionNames
- Drug: Endocrine therapy may include one of the following therapies: letrozole, anastrozole, exemestane, tamoxifen or fulvestrant
- Drug: CDK4/6 + Endocrine therapy
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Stanard of Care + Neratinib
- description
- Standard of Care 2nd or 3rd line endocrine therapy with or without CDK4/6 inhibitor + Neratinib
- interventionNames
- Drug: Neratinib + endocrine therapy
- Drug: CDK4/6 + Endocrine therapy
Primary outcomes (2)
- measure
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- Female
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: 1. Female over the age of 18 at the time of study enrollment 2. Not pregnant, planning to become pregnant or breast feeding 3. Metastatic ER+/HER2- breast cancer that has progressed on 1st line therapy including endocrine therapy +/- CDK4/6 inhibitors 4. At least one metastatic lesion visible on imaging (including FDG-PET) 5. At least one metastatic lesion must be biopsied and confirmed ER+ and HER2- by immunohistochemistry within 6 months of study screening (HER2 equivocal disease will be confirmed HER2- by FISH) 6. Tumors must be MLH1-low defined by \<50% tumor cells positive for nuclear MLH1 expression on immunohistochemistry 7. Standard of care next line endocrine therapy can include any endocrine therapy 8. Performance status ECOG \> 3 9. Life expectancy \> 1 year 10. Ability to get serial imaging studies Exclusion Criteria: 1. History of concurrent use of other HER2-targeted therapy 2. Concurrent use of other targeted systemic therapy 3. History of other cancers other than non-melanoma skin cancer 4. Actionable mutations on tumor genomic sequencing will be ineligible, and those participants encouraged to proceed with the relevant targeted therapy 5. Participants where there is not at least one imaging apparent lesion that has not been treated with prior targeted therapy (for example palliative radiation or cryoablation) 6. Contraindications to Neratinib use including allergy or hypersensitivity 7. Baseline grade 3+ diarrhea
References
Publications (5)
- BACKGROUNDMazumder A, Dewitt J, Oropeza E, Punturi N, Lozano D, Raghunathan M, Piscitelli J, Sajjadi E, GueriniRocco E, Venetis K, Ivanova M, Mane E, Dercole M, Concardi A, Fusco N, Manhart C, Bainbridge M, Haricharan S. Aberrant cytoplasmic localization of MLH1 characterizes a cell population that seeds breast cancer recurrence. Nat Commun. 2025 Dec 10;17(1):564. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-67257-8. PMID 41372237
- BACKGROUNDSajjadi E, Venetis K, Piciotti R, Invernizzi M, Guerini-Rocco E, Haricharan S, Fusco N. Mismatch repair-deficient hormone receptor-positive breast cancers: Biology and pathological characterization. Cancer Cell Int. 2021 May 17;21(1):266. doi: 10.1186/s12935-021-01976-y. PMID 34001143
- BACKGROUNDAnurag M, Punturi N, Hoog J, Bainbridge MN, Ellis MJ, Haricharan S. Comprehensive Profiling of DNA Repair Defects in Breast Cancer Identifies a Novel Class of Endocrine Therapy Resistance Drivers. Clin Cancer Res. 2018 Oct 1;24(19):4887-4899. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-17-3702. Epub 2018 May 23. PMID 29793947
- BACKGROUNDHaricharan S, Punturi N, Singh P, Holloway KR, Anurag M, Schmelz J, Schmidt C, Lei JT, Suman V, Hunt K, Olson JA Jr, Hoog J, Li S, Huang S, Edwards DP, Kavuri SM, Bainbridge MN, Ma CX, Ellis MJ. Loss of MutL Disrupts CHK2-Dependent Cell-Cycle Control through CDK4/6 to Promote Intrinsic Endocrine Therapy Resistance in Primary Breast Cancer. Cancer Discov. 2017 Oct;7(10):1168-1183. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-16-1179. Epub 2017 Aug 11. PMID 28801307
- BACKGROUNDPunturi NB, Seker S, Devarakonda V, Mazumder A, Kalra R, Chen CH, Li S, Primeau T, Ellis MJ, Kavuri SM, Haricharan S. Mismatch repair deficiency predicts response to HER2 blockade in HER2-negative breast cancer. Nat Commun. 2021 May 19;12(1):2940. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23271-0. PMID 34011995