
“I was keen to go on a clinical trial. I wanted to try new cancer treatments and hopefully help future generations.”
Please note - this trial is no longer recruiting patients. We hope to add results when they are available.
This trial is looking at a new drug called ganetespib for breast cancer that has spread to another part of the body (advanced or metastatic breast cancer).
Researchers are looking for new ways to treat secondary breast cancer. In this trial, they are looking at a drug called ganetespib.
Ganetespib (also known as STA-9090) is a type of targeted therapy drug called a heat shock protein 90 inhibitor. It stops signals that cancer cells use to divide and grow.
The trial is for women who have not had any other treatment for advanced breast cancer. There are 2 groups of women taking part
The aim of the trial is to see if ganetespib is safe and if it helps women with advanced breast cancer.
You may be able to enter this trial if
If you have HER2 positive breast cancer, you must have had trastuzumab (Herceptin) or another drug that targets HER2 after you had surgery to remove your breast cancer, and you must have finished this treatment at least 6 months ago.
You cannot enter this trial if you
This phase 2 trial will recruit about 70 women around the world.
You have ganetespib through a drip into a vein twice a week for 3 weeks, followed by a week without treatment. Each 4 week period is called a cycle of treatment.
As long as your cancer doesn’t get worse and you don’t have bad side effects, you have up to 3 cycles of treatment lasting 12 weeks. If your cancer stays the same size or gets smaller during treatment, the trial team may talk to you about continuing to take ganetespib for longer.
The researchers will use some of your blood and tissue samples to look at genes and proteins. They hope this will help them to understand more about breast cancer and how different people respond to treatment.
You see the trial team and have some tests before you start treatment. The tests include
The trial doctor will also take a sample of your cancer (a ) by putting a needle through your skin and into the cancer. The trial team must have a sample of your cancer, but if it is not possible to take a biopsy, your doctor may be able to get a sample of tissue that was removed in the past, for example when your cancer was first diagnosed.
You have ganetespib at the hospital. You have it twice a week, for 3 weeks out of 4. It takes about an hour each time. You have regular blood tests. You have a CT scan or PET scan after 3 weeks of treatment.
The trial team may ask you to have another biopsy after the first 3 weeks of treatment and again at the end of treatment. But you don’t have to have these biopsies if you don’t want to, you can still take part in the trial.
When you finish having treatment, you see the trial team again. You have a blood test and they may ask you to have another CT scan, MRI scan or bone scan.
As ganetespib is a new drug, there may be side effects we don’t know about yet. The most common known side effects include
The trial team will give you medicine to try to prevent side effects such as diarrhoea.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Professor David Cameron
Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC)
National Institute for Health Research Cancer Research Network (NCRN)
Synta Pharmaceuticals
Freephone 0808 800 4040
“I was keen to go on a clinical trial. I wanted to try new cancer treatments and hopefully help future generations.”