ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT05332561Updated Mar 20, 2025

Genomics Guided Targeted Post-neoadjuvant Therapy in Patients With Early Breast Cancer (COGNITION-GUIDE)

A Phase 2 interventional study of Atezolizumab 1200 mg in 20 ML Injection and Inavolisib in Early-stage Breast Cancer, sponsored by German Cancer Research Center. Recruiting at 9 sites in Germany. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-03-20.

Sponsored by German Cancer Research Center · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Jun 2023; still recruiting 3 years 4 months later.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
240
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

In early breast cancer (eBC), pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant therapy acts as surrogate marker for metastasis and overall survival. Therapy intensification by adding an adjuvant therapy line (post-neoadjuvant treatment) substantially lowers the risk of relapse in high-risk breast cancer patients with residual disease after neoadjuvant treatment (non-pCR). While this approach was exemplified in two phase III trials without biomarker-stratification (CREATE-X, KATHERINE), even higher efficiency might be achieved by individualized genomic-guided post-neoadjuvant therapies.

Within the seven-arm umbrella phase-II clinical trial COGNITION-GUIDE, we aim to deliver molecularly-tailored cancer care by implementing an additional response- and genomics-guided post-neoadjuvant therapy after finishing the guideline-compliant post-neoadjuvant treatment in high-risk breast cancer patients with residual cancer burden after neoadjuvant therapy to reduce the substantial risk of local and distant relapse.

The trial evaluates not a single drug but rather a general strategy of precision oncology in the curative setting and provides the basis for future confirmatory biomarker-driven trials.

Allocation to the therapy-arms is conducted by in depth molecular characterization of tumors within the COGNITION registry program.

The study aims to show an overall benefit of the precision medicine approach in high-risk eBC patients and to allow for secondary exploratory evaluation of each study-arm.

The primary endpoint of the study is invasive Disease-Free Survival (IDFS) after 4 years measured from surgery to local or distant relapse or death. The sample size of the entire trial is 240 eligible patients.

Read the detailed description

In early breast cancer (eBC), pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant therapy acts as surrogate marker for metastasis and overall survival.

Therapy intensification by adding an adjuvant therapy line (post-neoadjuvant treatment) substantially lowers the risk of relapse in high-risk breast cancer patients with residual disease after neoadjuvant treatment (non-pCR).

While this approach was exemplified in two phase III trials without biomarker-stratification (CREATE-X, KATHERINE), even higher efficiency might be achieved by individualized genomic-guided post-neoadjuvant therapies.

To date, prospective whole genomic and transcriptomic sequencing in the framework of precision oncology concepts is predominantly conducted in advanced-stage cancer, limiting the overall benefit mainly to prolongation of progression-free survival rather than cure.

In contrast, the implementation of precision oncology in an early disease stage may empower targeted intervention based on high throughput sequencing at a time point with low tumor burden and limited clonal complexity, harbouring the prospect to substantially improve cure rates by prohibition of incurable metastasis.

Whole-genome (WGS), whole exome (WES), gene panel and transcriptome sequencing in the molecular diagnostic registry platform COGNITION (neoadjuvant-treated eBC patients) revealed relevant diagnostic information on molecular-druggable alterations in a substantial proportion of patients in different molecular pathways (e.g. phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/ serine/threonine kinase (AKT), Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), apoptosis, DNA-repair, immune escape etc.).

Within the seven-arm umbrella phase-II clinical trial COGNITION-GUIDE, we aim to deliver molecularly-tailored cancer care by implementing an additional response- and genomics-guided post-neoadjuvant therapy after finishing the guideline-compliant post-neoadjuvant treatment in high-risk breast cancer patients with residual cancer burden after neoadjuvant therapy to reduce the substantial risk of local and distant relapse.

The trial evaluates not a single drug but rather a general strategy of precision oncology in the curative setting and provides the basis for future confirmatory biomarker-driven trials.

Eligible patients are identified considering pCR-status and clinical stage estrogen receptor status grade (CPS-EG)-score following surgery after neoadjuvant therapy.

Allocation to the therapy-arms is conducted by in depth molecular characterization of tumors within the COGNITION registry program.

Recruitment of adequate patient numbers in well-defined molecular subgroups is achieved in a multicenter approach.

The study aims to show an overall benefit of the precision medicine approach in high-risk eBC patients and to allow for secondary exploratory evaluation of each study-arm.

The primary endpoint of the study is invasive Disease-Free Survival (IDFS) after 4 years measured from surgery to local or distant relapse or death.

The sample size of the entire trial is 240 eligible patients.

02

Conditions studied

  • Early-stage Breast Cancer

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Keywords

  • Breast Cancer
  • Post-neoadjuvant therapy
  • genomics-guided
  • molecular diagnostic
  • targeted therapy
  • high risk
03

In context

Breast Neoplasms

14,825 studies on the registry are indexed under Breast Neoplasms; 3,319 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 240 is above the median of 72 across 10,896 interventional studies indexed under Breast Neoplasms.

Browse Breast Neoplasms studies →

Lead sponsor

German Cancer Research Center is the lead sponsor of 49 studies on the registry; 13 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

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.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Provision of written
  2. Female and male patients with non- early (stage I-III) breast cancer aged ≥ 18 years
  3. Conducted chemotherapy and surgery as well as conducted standard post-neoadjuvant treatment +/- radiotherapy (standard according to German guidelines except Abemaciclib and Olaparib)
  4. For patients with initially triple negative (TNBC) or -positive breast cancer:

    • Non-pCR defined as other than ypT0/is ypN0
  5. For patients with initially hormone receptor positive and HER2-negative breast cancer: Non-pCR and CPS-EG score

    • ≥ 3 and ypN0, or
    • ≥ 2 and ypN+
  6. Performance Status ≤ 1
  7. Acute effects of any prior therapy resolved to baseline severity or National Cancer Institute version 5.0 (NCI CTCAE v5.0) Grade ≤ 1 except for adverse effects not constituting a safety risk by investigator judgement
  8. or evidence of non-childbearing status. For women of negative urine pregnancy test at post-operative screening and baseline as well as highly effective forms of have to be in place thereafter

    • Evidence of childbearing potential is defined as fertile, following menarche and until becoming post-menopausal unless permanently sterile
    • Postmenopausal or evidence of non-childbearing status is defined as:

      • Amenorrhea for 1 year or more without an alternative medical cause following cessation of exogenous hormonal treatments plus follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels in the postmenopausal range in women not using hormonal contraception or hormonal replacement therapy
      • Chemotherapy-induced menopause
      • Surgical sterilisation (bilateral oophorectomy, bilateral salpingectomy, total hysterectomy or tubal ligation at least 6 weeks before IMP treatment)
      • Female patients with age ≥ 60 years
    • A man is considered fertile after puberty unless permanently sterile by bilateral orchidectomy
  9. Female patients of childbearing potential and male patients with partners of childbearing potential who are sexually active must agree to the use of two forms of contraception in combination (male condom and one highly effective method). These should be started immediately after signing the informed consent form and continued throughout the period of study treatment plus a substance-depending time period (see respective sub-protocol) for female patients and a substance-depending time period for male patients. Details on contraception and pregnancy testing for male and female patients (and if indicated their partners) under IMP treatment are described within the respective sub-protocol
  10. Ability of patient to understand and comply with the protocol for the duration of the study, including treatment and scheduled visits and examinations
  11. Adequate bone marrow, renal, and hepatic function defined by laboratory tests*

The biomarker-guided eligibility for the respective study arm is evaluated and determined exclusively by the NCT molecular tumor board on the basis of results of the COGNITION molecular diagnostic registry platform. Biomarkers that allow inclusion in the respective arm are:

  • Arm 1 (Atezolizumab, Immune Evasion ): positivity measure by IHC (≥1% on immune cells within the tumor), MSI-high status (validated by PCR), TMB-H (≥10mut/MB), CD274 amplification
  • Arm 2 (Inavolisib, PI3K): Known/reported oncogenic mutation in PIK3Ca
  • Arm 3 (Ipatasertib, AKT): Aberrations predicting increased PI3K-AKT pathway activity except PI3K-mutations, HR positive histology
  • Arm 4 (Olaparib, PARP, DNA-Repair): Inactivating somatic or germline BRCA1/2 mutation including homozygous deletions, Inactivating germline PALB2 mutations
  • Arm 5 (Sacituzumab Govitecan, TROP-2): Trop-2-overexpression (with IHC and except known/reported homozygous polymorphism in UGT1A1*28)
  • Arm 6 (Trastuzumab / Pertuzumab, ERBBB): HER2 exon-20 insertion, Activating HER2-mutation

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Other within the last 5 years except: adequately treated non-melanoma skin cancer, curatively treated in situ cancer of the cervix, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), Stage 1 grade 1 endometrial carcinoma, or other solid tumours including lymphomas (without bone marrow involvement) curatively treated with no evidence of disease for ≥ 5 year
  2. Concurrent severe, uncontrolled systemic disease that would place patient at undue risk or interfere with planned treatment
  3. Concurrent participation or previous treatment within 30 days in another interventional clinical trial
  4. Persistent toxicity (≥ Grade 2 according to v5.0 caused by previous cancer therapy, excluding alopecia
  5. Clinical signs of active infection (> Grade 2 according NCI CTCAE v5.0)
  6. History of or newly diagnosed (HIV) infection and patients
  7. Active Hepatitis A virus infection
  8. Active virus (HBV) infection, defined as having a positive hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) test. Patients with a past or resolved HBV infection, defined as having a negative HBsAg test and a positive total hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb) test at screening, are eligible for the study if active HBV infection is ruled out on the basis of HBV DNA viral load per local guidelines
  9. Active virus (HCV) infection, defined as having a positive HCV antibody test at screening confirmed by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive for HCV RNA
  10. Dementia or significant impairment of cognitive state
  11. Epilepsy requiring pharmacologic treatment
  12. Pregnancy and breast feeding
  13. Inability to take oral medication and gastrointestinal disorders likely to interfere with absorption of study medication
  14. Major surgery (any invasive operative procedure in which a more extensive resection is performed, e.g. a body cavity is entered, organs are removed, or normal anatomy is altered) within four weeks before screening and baseline excluding breast-tumor resection after chemotherapy. Patients must have recovered from any effects of any major surgery
  15. Systemic chemotherapy or radiotherapy within four weeks or a longer period depending on the characteristics of the agents used
  16. Heart failure classified as (NYHA) II/III/IV
  17. Severe obstructive or restrictive ventilation disorder
  18. Patients with clinically active tuberculosis
  19. Any other disease, metabolic dysfunction, physical examination finding, or clinical laboratory finding giving reasonable suspicion of a disease or condition that contraindicates the use of an drug
  20. Is taking or requiring the continued use of any of the prohibited concomitant medications listed in the respective subprotocols at baseline
  21. Patients considered a poor medical risk due to a serious, uncontrolled medical disorder or non-malignant systemic disease. Examples include, but are not limited to, uncontrolled ventricular arrhythmia, recent (within 3 months) myocardial infarction, unstable spinal cord compression or, superior vena cava syndrome.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(17)

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.

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.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

Adjuvant and neoadjuvant

Neoadjuvant treatment is given before the main treatment (usually surgery), often to shrink a tumour. Adjuvant treatment is given after it, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.

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.

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.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

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.

CTCAE grade

The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.

1
Mild.
2
Moderate.
3
Severe.
4
Life-threatening.
5
Death due to the event.

“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.

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).

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.

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.

PD-1, PD-L1 and checkpoint inhibitors

PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are proteins that act as brakes on the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab, block them so the immune system can attack a cancer.

PD-L1 can also be measured in a tumour sample. Some scores count stained tumour cells only (TPS); others also count certain immune cells (CPS). The study names the score and the minimum it uses.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

NYHA class (heart failure)

The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.

I
No limits: ordinary activity causes no undue tiredness or breathlessness.
II
Slight limits: comfortable at rest, ordinary activity causes symptoms.
III
Marked limits: comfortable at rest, less than ordinary activity causes symptoms.
IV
Symptoms even at rest; any activity makes them worse.

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.

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.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
240 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Arm 1 Atezolizumab (Immune Evasion)

    Atezolizumab Dosage: 1200 mg, intravenous, on d1, q21d

    Drug: Atezolizumab 1200 mg in 20 ML Injection

  • Experimental
    Arm 2 Inavolisib (PI3K)

    Inavolisib Dosage: 9 mg, oral, on d1-d28, q28d

    Drug: Inavolisib

  • Experimental
    Arm 3 Ipatasertib (AKT)

    Ipatasertib Dosage: 400 mg, oral, on d1-d21, q28d

    Drug: Ipatasertib

  • Experimental
    Arm 4 Olaparib (PARP, DNA-Repair)

    Olaparib Dosage: 300 mg, oral, bid d1-d28, q28d

    Drug: Olaparib

  • Experimental
    Arm 5 Sacituzumab Govitecan (TROP-2)

    Sacituzumab Govitecan Dosage: 10 mg/kg BW, intravenous, on d1 and d8, q21d

    Drug: Sacituzumab govitecan

  • Experimental
    Arm 6 Trastuzumab/Pertuzumab (ERBBB)

    Trastuzumab/Pertuzumab Administration: subcutaneous; Initial dose: Trastuzumab 600 mg, Pertuzumab 1200 mg, 30 000 units hyaluronidase; Maintainance dose: Trastuzumab 600 mg, Pertuzumab 600 mg, 20 000 units hyaluronidase; Frequency: on d1, q21d

    Drug: Trastuzumab/pertuzumab

  • No intervention
    Arm 7 Observation

    Observation

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Invasive Disease-free Survival (IDFS) as defined by Hudis et al in the entire study population four years after surgery

    Primary objective is to improve clinical outcome in early high-risk breast cancer by biomarker-guided post-neoadjuvant therapy (systemic treatment in the adjuvant setting following neoadjuvant therapy, surgery and post-neoadjuvant standard therapy)

    Time frame: Four years after surgery

Secondary outcomes

  1. Invasive Disease-free Survival (IDFS) as defined by Hudis et al

    in each study arm separately

    Time frame: Four years after surgery

  2. Distant Disease-free Survival (DDFS) as defined by Hudis et al

    in each study arm separately and overall

    Time frame: Four years after surgery

  3. Overall Survival

    in each study arm separately and overall

    Time frame: When the last patient has completed four years after surgery

  4. Incidence of Treatment-Emergent Adverse Events (safety and tolerability)

    in each study arm separately and overall

    Time frame: Through treatment period of the study, an average of 1 year

07

Study locations

7 of 9 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Study documents

PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 20, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05332561
Lead sponsor
German Cancer Research Center
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 18, 2022
Start date
Jun 29, 2023
Primary completion
Mar 2030 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2030 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 20, 2025

Study contacts

Andreas Schneeweiss, Prof. Dr.
Contact
andreas.schneeweiss@med.uni-heidelberg.de
+49(0)622156 ext. 36051
Richard Schlenk, Prof. Dr.
Contact
richard.schlenk@nct-heidelberg.de
Andreas Schneeweiss, Prof. Dr.
principal investigator · National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT)

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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Studies of the drugs tested here: Atezolizumab · Inavolisib · Olaparib · Sacituzumab govitecan · Trastuzumab · Pertuzumab

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