A Phase 1/2 interventional study of Pembrolizumab in Metastatic Breast Cancer and Brain Metastases, sponsored by Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Recruiting at 3 sites in United States. Open to female participants aged 19 Years to 90 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-03-30.
Sponsored by Weill Medical College of Cornell University · Phase 1/2, Interventional, and Treatment
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Among 85 studies testing pembrolizumab in Breast Neoplasms — 22 open to participants now, 45 under way, 8 of them phase 3. pembrolizumab · Breast Neoplasms.
Among the 85 studies testing pembrolizumab in Breast Neoplasms, this one is the 45th largest by planned enrollment, is one of 10 that started in 2018, is one of 13 in phase 1/2, reaches primary completion later than 33 of the 44 other live ones, and was the 37th registered.
14,832 studies on the registry are indexed under Breast Neoplasms; 3,320 are open to participants now.
Browse Breast Neoplasms studies →22 of the 85 studies testing pembrolizumab in Breast Neoplasms are open now, in 11 countries. Recruiting first, the newest first:
London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute OR Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's · Sites in Canada
Ages 18+
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
UNICANCER · Sites in Belgium, France
Ages 18+
UNICANCER · Sites in France, Spain
Ages 18+
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
By country, each count listing its studies:
pembrolizumab: first FDA approval 2014 (KEYTRUDA), first EMA approval 2015. What it is approved for, and how studies give it, is on its page →
Of the 2,399 Breast Neoplasms studies recruiting now, 1,570 (65%) set no upper age limit and 592 (25%) stop at 75 or younger; 103 take children under 18; 215 take healthy volunteers.
This study: 19 Years to 90 Years · female · no healthy volunteers.
The full table on the hub →This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
On this site’s reading of the record, pembrolizumab is the treatment under test here. Read study by study →
85 studies; the count open now beside each. This study's row is marked.
A study in two phases is counted once above. Listed by phase, each with its combined phases: Phase 1 21 · Phase 2 70 · Phase 3 8
First in 2010; this study’s year is marked. 10 started in 2018.
By drug class, each counting the studies that test any of its medicines:
This study's planned enrollment of 41 is below the median of 72 across 10,903 interventional studies indexed under Breast Neoplasms.
Median enrollment 44 across the 85 interventional studies. Of the 32 that completed or were terminated, 20 (63%) have results posted.
This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
5 of 85 have an industry lead sponsor. The 10 most frequent:
Weill Medical College of Cornell University is the lead sponsor of 892 studies on the registry; 165 are open to participants now.
Of its 123 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 94 (76%) have results posted.
31 studies in Breast Neoplasms by Weill Medical College of Cornell University: 11 open now, 15 under way, 2 of them phase 3. Of 15 finished, 7 (47%) have results posted.
Among the 31 studies in Breast Neoplasms by Weill Medical College of Cornell University, this one is the 15th largest by planned enrollment of the 27 interventional ones that give a count, is one of 3 that started in 2018, is one of 2 in phase 1/2, reaches primary completion later than 12 of the 14 other live ones, and was the 15th registered.
Weill Medical College of Cornell University’s Breast Neoplasms studies by the year they started, since 1995.
12 of the studies testing pembrolizumab 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 |
|---|---|
| NCT05645380University of Kansas Medical CenterNeoadjuvant TIL- and Response-Adapted Chemoimmunotherapy for TNBC | 2026-12 |
| NCT05675579M.D. Anderson Cancer CenterA Phase II Study of Neoadjuvant Sacituzumab Govitecan and Pembrolizumab Therapy for Immunochemotherapy-resistant Early-stage Triple-negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) | 2026-12-31 |
| NCT05286437National Cancer Centre, SingaporePhase II Lenvatinib and Pembrolizumab in Endocrine Resistant Breast Cancer With Letrozole | 2026-12-31 |
| NCT04265872Baylor Research InstituteBortezomib Followed by Pembrolizumab and Cisplatin in metTNBC | 2026-12-31 |
| NCT03804944Weill Medical College of Cornell UniversityConverting HR+ Breast Cancer Into an Individualized Vaccine | 2026-12-31 |
Add all 12 to your calendar (.ics) → With an account.
Among the 85 studies testing pembrolizumab in Breast Neoplasms, from their registry updates:
Among Weill Medical College of Cornell University’s 31 in Breast Neoplasms:
This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
Patients with metastatic breast cancer with at least 2 brain metastases will receive pembrolizumab every 3 weeks. Patients will undergo stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) to one of the brain lesions. Pembrolizumab infusion will be given on Day 4 (+/-1) after SRS treatment at the standard dose of 200mg IV over 30 minutes and repeated every 3 weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
Patients with metastatic breast cancer with at least 2 brain metastases, eligible to receive SRS. Patients will complete radiation therapy within 1 week and Pembrolizumab may be continued every 3 weeks until evidence of brain progression or serious adverse toxicity. Patients will be followed until death.
Pembrolizumab infusion will be given on Day 4 (+/-1) after SRS treatment at the standard dose of 200mg IV over 30 minutes and repeated every 3 weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
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.
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.
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.
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
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.
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.
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
A planned gap after a treatment, so that its effects can lessen before the study treatment or a study assessment. Ask the study team and the doctor who prescribed it before changing any medicine.
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.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
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.
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.
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
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.
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.
Postmenopausal
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
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.
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.
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.
Brain metastases
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Washout period
A planned gap after a treatment, so that its effects can lessen before the study treatment or a study assessment. Ask the study team and the doctor who prescribed it before changing any medicine.
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.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Live vaccines
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
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.
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.
Excipients
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Autoimmune disease
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
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.
Pembrolizumab infusion will be given on Day 4 (+/-1) after SRS treatment at the standard dose of 200mg IV over 30 minutes and repeated every 3 weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
Drug: Pembrolizumab
Pembrolizumab infusion will be given on Day 4 (+/-1) after SRS treatment at the standard dose of 200mg IV over 30 minutes and repeated every 3 weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
Tumor response for non-irradiated brain lesions at 8 weeks according to RECIST1.1
detect abscopal responses in non-irradiated brain metastases, followed at routine post SRS brain MRI (evaluated at 8 weeks post-treatment, +/- one week) according to Response Evaluation criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST1.1)
Time frame: 8 weeks
Correlation of abscopal responses with the radiation dose received
Correlate potential abscopal responses with their radiation dose exposure
Time frame: 1 year
Overall survival - assessed from the start of study drug until death in non-irradiation metastases in the rest of the body by routine imaging.
detect systemic objective responses in non-irradiated metastases in the rest of the body, by routine imaging
Time frame: 3 years
Number of participants with abscopal response will be assessed.
Evaluation of an abscopal effect elsewhere in the body. This will be assessed by serial CT based imaging performed every 3 months.
Time frame: up to 12 weeks
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Started Nov 2018 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2028, 121 months after the start.
Of 166 non-industry phase 1/2 interventional studies under Breast Neoplasms, half reached primary completion within 67 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 45 and three quarters within 95. This study's planned 121 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 327 studies reached it within 61 months; a quarter within 45 and three quarters within 88.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
Contact study teamGet an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
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Studies of the drug tested here: Pembrolizumab
Weill Medical College of Cornell University →