A Phase 2 interventional study of Simvastatin 80mg in Breast Cancer Stage IV, sponsored by Baylor Breast Care Center. Active, not recruiting at 2 sites in United States. Open to female participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-02-27.
Sponsored by Baylor Breast Care Center · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment
Among 11 studies testing simvastatin in Breast Neoplasms — 1 open to participants now, 2 under way, none of them phase 3. Simvastatin · Breast Neoplasms.
Among the 11 studies testing simvastatin in Breast Neoplasms, this one is the 11th largest by enrollment, is the only one that started in 2020, is one of 9 in phase 2, and was the 7th registered.
14,825 studies on the registry are indexed under Breast Neoplasms; 3,319 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 5 is below the median of 72 across 10,896 interventional studies indexed under Breast Neoplasms.
Browse Breast Neoplasms studies →1 of the 11 studies testing simvastatin in Breast Neoplasms is open now, in 1 country. Each count lists the studies.
Simvastatin: first FDA approval 1991 (ZOCOR), first EMA approval 2013. What it is approved for, and how studies give it, is on its page →
Of the 2,400 Breast Neoplasms studies recruiting now, 1,572 (66%) set no upper age limit and 591 (25%) stop at 75 or younger; 103 take children under 18; 214 take healthy volunteers.
This study: 18 Years and older · female · no healthy volunteers.
The full table on the hub →11 studies; the count open now beside each. This study's row is marked.
First in 2005; this study’s year is marked. 1 started in 2020.
Median enrollment 35 across the 11 interventional studies. Of the 7 that completed or were terminated, 4 (57%) have results posted.
None of the 11 has an industry lead sponsor. The 8 most frequent:
Baylor Breast Care Center is the lead sponsor of 16 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.
16 studies in Breast Neoplasms by Baylor Breast Care Center: 1 open now, 3 under way, none of them phase 3. Of 12 finished, 6 (50%) have results posted.
Among the 16 studies in Breast Neoplasms by Baylor Breast Care Center, this one is the 13th largest by enrollment, is the only one that started in 2020, is one of 13 in phase 2, and was the 15th registered.
Baylor Breast Care Center’s Breast Neoplasms studies by the year they started, since 1999.
1 of the studies testing simvastatin in Breast Neoplasms that are under way reach primary completion within a year, 0 of them phase 3. Phase 3 first, then by date:
| Study | Primary completion |
|---|---|
| NCT05464810Emory UniversityLetrozole With and Without Simvastatin for the Treatment of Stage I-III Hormone Receptor Positive, HER2 Negative Breast Cancer | 2027-04-15 |
Among the 11 studies testing simvastatin in Breast Neoplasms, from their registry updates:
Nothing recorded among them since 2026-09-25.
Among Baylor Breast Care Center’s 16 in Breast Neoplasms:
Nothing recorded among them since 2026-09-25.
This study recruits patients with metastatic breast cancer who have progressed on their current regimen of dual anti-HER2 therapy. This study evaluates whether or not the addition of simvastatin to the dual anti-HER2 therapy regimen helps make the tumor respond to the anti-HER2 therapy again. All participants will receive simvastatin in combination with their current anti-HER2 therapy regimen.
This study is recruiting participants with metastatic breast cancer that is HER2 positive. "Metastatic" means that cancer has spread to areas of the body outside of the breast. "HER2 positive" means that a cancer cell has too many HER2 receptors on its surface. HER2 receptors act like copy machines, and help tell cancer cells to grow and multiply.
Drugs known as HER2-targeted therapies are often used to treat HER2-positive cancers. HER2-targeted therapies work by blocking the HER2 protein from telling the cell to grow and divide. Once the protein stops working, the cancer cells can no longer make copies of themselves. Once a cancer cell becomes unable to make copies of itself, the tumor will start to shrink. However, some tumors are able to find other ways to make copies of themselves, even when the HER2 protein is blocked. When this happens, the cancer will start to grow again. Researchers believe that adding a drug called simvastatin to an anti-HER2 therapy regimen may cause the cancer to start responding again to your HER2-medications.
Simvastatin is a drug that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat high cholesterol. Laboratory research has shown that simvastatin together with dual HER2-targeted therapy slows the growth of breast cancer tumors that had been growing on dual HER2-targeting therapy alone.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Participants must have adequate organ function as defined by:
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
HER2 is a protein, made from the ERBB2 gene, that drives the growth of some cancers. A study may look for a level of the protein, extra copies of the gene, or a particular change in it.
In breast cancer, protein tests are read as HER2-positive, HER2-low or HER2-negative; other cancers use their own rules. Check which test result the study requires.
A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.
“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.
The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.
The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.
“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HER2
HER2 is a protein, made from the ERBB2 gene, that drives the growth of some cancers. A study may look for a level of the protein, extra copies of the gene, or a particular change in it.
In breast cancer, protein tests are read as HER2-positive, HER2-low or HER2-negative; other cancers use their own rules. Check which test result the study requires.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Line of therapy
A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.
“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECOG performance status
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Measurable disease
The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.
The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
RECIST
The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.
“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Life expectancy
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Bilirubin
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction)
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hypersensitivity
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinically significant
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis C tests
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Simvastatin 80 mg in combination with anti-HER2 therapy regimen
Drug: Simvastatin 80mg
Participants will receive simvastatin 80 mg by mouth daily at bedtime
Also known as: Zocor
Objective Response
Objective response is defined as complete response or partial response, according to RECIST criteria.
Time frame: Up to approximately 24 months
Clinical benefit
Clinical benefit is defined as the number of objective responses plus the number of participants with stable disease lasting greater than 24 weeks
Time frame: Up to approximately 24 months
Duration of Response
The length of time participants have a partial response, complete response or stable disease prior to disease progression
Time frame: Up to approximately 24 months
Time to Progression
The length of time from the start of treatment until the disease starts to get worse or spread to other parts of the body
Time frame: Up to approximately 24 months
Number of treatment-related adverse events, as assessed by the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria v. 4.0 (CTCAE v. 4.0).
This is the number of side effects reported by participants receiving simvastatin in combination with HER2-therapy.
Time frame: Up to approximately 24 months
HMG-CoA Reductase and HMG-CoA Synthase 1 protein levels in baseline and post-treatment tumor biopsies
This measures the levels of certain enzymes in a tumor that help scientists understand how simvastatin is affecting the cancer cells.
Time frame: Up to approximately 24 months
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Feb 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Studies of the drug tested here: Simvastatin
Baylor Breast Care Center