Minetta C. Liu, M.D.

The purposes of this study are (i) to obtain and study biospecimens from patients with breast cancer that has either spread out of the breast or recurred after initial treatment(s), such as surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation, and (ii) to collect information about patients, treatments, and the behavior of the underlying cancer. Research involving biospecimens that are linked to related medical information is one way to learn more about diseases. In this case, we seek to understand the mechanism of tumor spread and determine why people respond differently to specific cancer treatments. In general terms, scientists will study the cells, DNA, RNA, and proteins found in the tumor tissue and/or the blood to understand more about cancer and the body’s response to cancer and related treatments.

The purpose of this study is to to establish a minimally-invasive blood based test for the detection of clinically actionable genetic changes in breast cancer patients.

The objective of this study is to provide preliminary data to support the development of selected technologies for the efficient and reliable analyses of cell free DNA (cfDNA) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the setting of metastatic breast cancer.

To determine the maximally tolerated dose (MTD) of intratumoral administration of an Edmonston strain measeles virus genetically engineered to express NAP (MV-s-NAP) in patients with metastatic breast cancer; to determine the safety and toxicity of on-time and serial administration of MV-s-NAP in patients with metastic breast cancer. 

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the long-term safety and efficacy of pembrolizumab (MK-3475) in participants from previous Merck pembrolizumab-based parent studies who rollover into this extension study.

This study will consist of three phases: 1) First Course Phase, 2) Survival Follow-up Phase or 3) Second Course Phase.

Each participant will roll-over to this extension study in one of the following three phases, depending on the study phase they were in at the completion of the parent study.

Participants who were in the First Course Phase of study treatment in their parent study will enter the First Course Phase of this study and complete up to 35 cycles of study treatment with pembrolizumab or a pembrolizumab-based combination.

Participants who were in the Follow-up Phase in the parent study (post-treatment or Survival Follow-up Phase) will enter the Survival Follow-up Phase of this study.

Participants who were in the Second Course Phase in their parent study will enter Second Course Phase of this study and complete up to 17 cycles of study treatment with pembrolizumab or a pembrolizumab-based combination.

This study will examine the safety and tolerability of SGN-LIV1A in patients with metastatic breast cancer. SGN-LIV1A will be given every 3 weeks alone or in combination with trastuzumab.

This research is being done to determine if early changes on a type of imaging procedure called PET (Positron Emission Tomography) can predict which patients are most likely to respond to the combination of trastuzumab and pertuzumab when given prior to surgery.

The purpose of this study is to compare the safety and efficacy of nab-paclitaxel in combination with either gemcitabine or carboplatin to the combination of gemcitabine and carboplatin as first line treatment in female subjects with triple negative metastatic breast cancer (TNMBC) or metastatic triple negative breast cancer.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness and safety of pembrolizumab as first line or above treatment in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. 

The purpose of the study is to determine whether treatment with a PI3K inhibitor plus letrozole leads to an increase in pathologic clinical response and Objective Response Rate compared to treatment with placebo plus letrozole in patients with Breast cancer

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of breast cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving the drugs in different combinations may kill more breast cancer cells. Giving combination chemotherapy after surgery may kill any tumor cells that remain after surgery.

PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying different combination chemotherapy regimens and their side effects and comparing how well they work in treating women with non-metastatic breast cancer.

This research study is a Phase II clinical trial. Phase II clinical trials test the effectiveness of an investigational drug to learn whether the drug works in treating a specific cancer. "Investigational" means that the drug is still being studied and that research doctors are trying to find out more about it-such as the safest dose to use, the side effects it may cause, and if the drug is effective for treating different types of cancer. It also means that the FDA has not approved this drug for use patients undergoing adjuvant treatment for HER2+ breast cancer. Trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) is a drug that may stop cancer cells from growing. This drug has been used in other research studies and information from those other research studies suggests that this drug may help to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer in this research study.

The use of T-DM1 in this research study is experimental, which means it is not approved by any regulatory authority for the adjuvant treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer. However, it FDA-approved for metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. T-DM1 has caused cancer cells to die in laboratory studies. In preclinical studies, this drug has prevented or slowed the growth of breast cancer. The breast cancer treatments (paclitaxel and Trastuzumab) used in this study are considered part of standard-of-care regimens in early breast cancer. A standard treatment means that this is a treatment that would be accepted by the majority of the medical community as a suitable treatment for your type of breast cancer.

In this research study, the investigators are looking to see if the study drug T-DM1 will have less side effects than traditional HER2-positive breast cancer treatment of trastuzumab and paclitaxel. The investigators are also hoping to learn about the long term benefits and disease-free survival of participants who take the study drug T-DM1 in comparison to those participants to take the combination of trastuzumab and paclitaxel.

This is an open-label, single-arm pilot study evaluating the antitumor activity and safety of niraparib as neoadjuvant therapy in patients with HER2 negative and BRCAmut localized breast cancer (primary tumor >1 cm).

The primary objective of this collaborative study is to collect biospecimens for the evaluation of internally developed assays designed to predict for and monitor response to currently available PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors.

Utilizing CellSearch® technology, the ability to both enumerate and reliably and reproducibly characterize circulating tumor cells (CTC) for tumor markers that predict endocrine sensitivity (estrogen receptor [ER] and Bcl-2) and resistance (HER2 and Ki67) has been demonstrated. An algorithm for a CTC-Endocrine Therapy Index (CTC-ETI) has been constructed that can be calculated for each patient using the CTC enumeration and marker results. The primary goal of this study is to determine a CTC-ETI in ER positive, HER2 negative metastatic breast cancer patients before the initiation of a new endocrine therapy for the identification of patients that will progress rapidly.

The purpose of this study is to assess practice patterns and changes in treatment recommendations based on the results obtained from a clinically available, comprehensive next generation DNA/RNA sequencing assay. A database of paired clinical and sequencing data will also be established for future research.

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness and safety of pembrolizumab (MK-3475) versus placebo in combination with neoadjuvant (pre-surgery) chemotherapy and adjuvant (post-surgery) endocrine therapy in the treatment of adults who have high-risk early-stage estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (ER+/HER2-) breast cancer.

This is a two arm Phase III trial in first and second-line HER2 negative patients with locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. The primary endpoint is overall survival (OS), and the objective is to test for the superiority of eribulin mesylate over standard weekly paclitaxel. Patients will be randomized between the experimental and control arm with equal allocation (1:1) within strata defined by prior adjuvant taxanes, hormone receptor status, and line of therapy. Subjects will continue protocol directed therapy until documentation of disease progression, development of unacceptable toxicity, or withdrawal of consent. Those who discontinue study treatment without radiological progression will be followed with repeat imaging studies every 12 weeks. All subjects will be followed until death, withdrawal of consent, or study termination.

GRAIL is using deep sequencing of circulating cell-free nucleic acids (cfNAs) to develop assays to detect cancer early in blood. The purpose of this study is to collect biological samples from donors with a new diagnosis of cancer (blood and tumor tissue) and from donors who do not have a diagnosis of cancer (blood) in order to characterize the population heterogeneity in cancer and non-cancer subjects and to develop models for distinguishing cancer from non-cancer.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate an investigational, multi-cancer early detect test developed by Grail, Inc. with the results returned to a study investigator.

GRAIL is using high-intensity sequencing of circulating cell-free nucleic acids (cfNAs) to develop blood tests to detect cancer early. The purpose of this study is to train and validate an assay to detect invasive breast cancer in patients undergoing mammography.

The purpose of this study is to validate an internally developed assay for the detection of BRAF V600E mutations in cfDNA from the peripheral blood of patients with melanoma.

KRAS gene mutations are present in approximately 40% of colorectal cancers and are known to predict for a lack of benefit from some anti-cancer medications (known as anti-EGFR antibody therapy) that are used in routine clinical practice. Currently, the only way to know if your tumor has one of these mutations is to take a tissue sample or biopsy of one of your tumors.

Unfortunately biopsies carry with them certain risks, including bleeding, infection and/or pain. This study is being done to see if a blood test can detect the KRAS mutations in the DNA circulating in the blood and be an effective method for determining if a patient’s tumor carries the mutation(s) without having to perform a biopsy.

The objective of this study is to validate internally developed assays for the detection of clinically relevant gene mutations in cfDNA from the peripheral blood of patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma.