CClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT06123338Updated Sep 24, 2026

A Study of Pembrolizumab With Trastuzumab and Chemotherapy in People With Esophagogastric Cancer

A Phase 2 interventional study of Pembrolizumab and Trastuzumab in Esophageal Cancer, Gastric Adenocarcinoma and HER2 Gene Mutation, sponsored by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Recruiting at 10 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-24.

Sponsored by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
49
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The purpose of this study to find out whether adding trastuzumab and pembrolizumab to standard chemotherapy is an effective treatment for resectable HER2+ esophagogastric cancer.

Read the detailed description

Eligible patients will receive 8 peri-operative cycles of pembrolizumab and trastuzumab with chemotherapy (fluoropyrimidine/oxaliplatin doublet for patients initially enrolled and subsequently FLOT [5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin and docetaxel] followed by pembrolizumab and trastuzumab maintenance to complete 1 total year of therapy.

02

Conditions studied

  • Esophageal Cancer
  • Gastric Adenocarcinoma
  • HER2 Gene Mutation

Keywords

  • HER2+ Esophageal cancer
  • Esophageal Cancer
  • Gastric Adenocarcinoma
  • HER2+ GEJ cancer
  • HER2 IHC3+ expression
  • IHC 2+/FISH>2.0 expression
  • Esophagogastric cancer
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • 23-124
03

Who can participate

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

Inclusion criteria

  • Age 18 years or older at time of signing informed consent.
  • ECOG performance status 0-1.
  • HER2+ esophageal, GEJ, or gastric adenocarcinoma biopsy or resection specimen as defined by local HER2 IHC3+ or IHC 2+/FISH>2.0 expression.
  • Complete surgical resection of the primary tumor must be achievable
  • Demonstrate adequate organ function as defined in Table 1.

Table 1 - Organ Function Requirements for Eligibility Hematological

  • Absolute neutrophil count (ANC): ≥1,500 /mcL
  • Platelets: ≥100,000 / mcL
  • Hemoglobin: ≥8 g/dL Renal
  • Creatinine clearance: ≥ 50 mL/minute Hepatic
  • Serum total bilirubin: ≤ 1.5 X ULN OR Direct bilirubin ≤ ULN for subjects with total bilirubin levels > 1.5 ULN. Except patients with Gilbert's disease (≤3x ULN)
  • AST and ALT: ≤ 2.5 X ULN
  • Albumin: >3 mg/dL Coagulation
  • International normalized ratio (INR) OR prothrombin time (PT) Activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT): \<1.5 x ULN unless participant is receiving anticoagulant therapy as long as PT or aPTT is within therapeutic range of intended use of anticoagulants
  • Male participants: A male participant must agree to use contraception as detailed in Section 15.3 of this protocol during the treatment period and for at least 230 days (5 terminal half-lives of trastuzumab [140] plus an additional 90 days [spermatogenesis cycle]) after the last dose of study treatment and refrain from donating sperm during this period.
  • Female participants: A female participant is eligible to participate if she is not pregnant, not breastfeeding, and at least one of the following conditions applies:

    1. Not a woman of childbearing potential (WOCBP) as defined in section 15.3 OR
    2. A WOCBP who agrees to follow the contraceptive guidance in section 15.3 during the treatment period and for at least 170 days (140 days plus an additional 30 days [menstruation cycle]) after the last dose of study treatment.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Presence of metastatic or recurrent disease.
  • Has received prior treatment for esophagogastric cancer
  • Has received prior therapy with an anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, or anti-CTLA-4 agent.
  • Has received prior therapy with an anti-HER2 agent
  • Left ventricular ejection fraction \<50% within 1 month of screening by MUGA or echocardiogram. Patients with an ejection fraction 45-49% may be permissible in the absence of any cardiac symptoms, if cleared by a cardiologist, and per the investigator's discresion.
  • Is currently participating and receiving study therapy or has participated in a study of an investigational agent and received study therapy or used an investigational device within 4 weeks of the first dose of treatment.
  • Has a diagnosis of immunodeficiency or is receiving systemic steroid therapy or any other form of immunosuppressive therapy within 7 days prior to the first dose of trial treatment.
  • Patients who have received acute, low dose, systemic immunosuppressant medications (e.g., dexamethasone containing antiemetic regimen or steroids as CT scan contrast premedication) may be enrolled.
  • The use of inhaled corticosteroids and mineralocorticoids (e.g., fludrocortisone) for patients with orthostatic hypotension or adrenocortical insufficiency is allowed.
  • Has a known history of active TB (Bacillus tuberculosis)
  • Hypersensitivity to pembrolizumab or any of its excipients
  • Has been diagnosed or treated for another malignancy in the past 3 years (not including non-melanoma skin cancer)
  • Has known active central nervous system (CNS) metastases and/or carcinomatous meningitis
  • Has known history of, or any evidence of active, non-infectious pneumonitis.
  • Has an active infection requiring systemic therapy.
  • Has a history or current evidence of any condition, therapy, or laboratory abnormality that might confound the results of the trial, interfere with the subject's participation for the full duration of the trial, or is not in the best interest of the subject to participate, in the opinion of the treating investigator.
  • Has known psychiatric or substance abuse disorders that would interfere with cooperation with the requirements of the trial.
  • Is pregnant or breastfeeding, or expecting to conceive or father children within the projected duration of the trial, starting with the pre-screening or screening visit through 120 days after the last dose of trial treatment.
  • A WOCBP who has a positive urine pregnancy test within 72 hours prior to allocation. If the urine test is positive or cannot be confirmed as negative, a serum pregnancy test will be required.
  • Has had an allogeneic tissue or solid organ transplant
  • Active or prior documented autoimmune or inflammatory disorders (including inflammatory bowel disease; systemic lupus erythematosus; Wegener syndrome [granulomatosis with polyangiitis]; myasthenia gravis; Graves' disease; rheumatoid arthritis, hypophysitis, uveitis) within the past 3 years prior to the start of treatment. The following are exceptions to this criterion:

    • Subjects with vitiligo or alopecia
    • Subjects with hypothyroidism (e.g., following Hashimoto syndrome) stable on hormone replacement or psoriasis not requiring systemic treatment.
    • Has a known history of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (HIV 1/2 antibodies).
  • Has known active Hepatitis B (e.g., HBsAg reactive) or Hepatitis C (e.g., HCV RNA [qualitative] is detected).
  • Has received a live vaccine within 30 days of planned start of study therapy. Note: Seasonal influenza vaccines for injection are generally inactivated flu vaccines and are allowed; however intranasal influenza vaccines (e.g., Flu-Mist®) are live attenuated vaccines, and are not allowed.
  • Is unwilling to give written informed consent, unwilling to participate, or unable to comply with the protocol for the duration of the study.
04

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
49 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Esophagogastric Cancer

    Participants will have a diagnosis of resectable HER2+ (IHC 3+ or IHC 2+/FISH ratio \>2.0) esophageal, GEJ or gastric cancer.

    Drug: Pembrolizumab · Drug: Trastuzumab · Drug: Oxaliplatin · Drug: Capecitabine · Drug: 5-Fluorouracil · Drug: Docetaxel · Other: Nutrition questionnaires (optional) · Other: stool and saliva samples (optional)

Interventions

  • DrugPembrolizumab

    Pembrolizumab will be administered on an every 3-week dosing schedule

  • DrugTrastuzumab

    Trastuzumab will be administered on an every 3-week dosing schedule

  • DrugOxaliplatin

    Oxaliplatin every 3 weeks, +/-7 days

  • DrugCapecitabine

    Capecitabine twice daily on days 1 to 14 every 3 weeks or 5-FU on days 1 to 5 every 3 weeks

  • Drug5-Fluorouracil

    5-Fluorouracil administered as a 24 hour IV continuous infusion once every 2 weeks

  • DrugDocetaxel

    Docetaxel administered intravenously once every 2 weeks.

  • OtherNutrition questionnaires (optional)

    will be collected (optionally)

  • Otherstool and saliva samples (optional)

    will be collected (optionally)

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Event-free survival (EFS)

    EFS is defined as the time from start of treatment to time of disease progression, recurrence, or death, whichever occurs first.

    Time frame: 2 years

06

Study locations

10 of 10 sites recruiting
  • Massachusetts General Hospital (Data Collection Only)
    Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States
    • Samuel Klempner, MD · Contact · 617-724-4000
    Recruiting
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Basking Ridge (Limited Protocol Activities)
    Basking Ridge, New Jersey 07920, United States
    • Yelena Janjigian, MD · Contact · 646-888-4186
    Recruiting
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth (Limited Protocol Activities)
    Middletown, New Jersey 07748, United States
    • Yelena Janjigian, MD · Contact · 646-888-4186
    Recruiting
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen (Limited Protocol Activities)
    Montvale, New Jersey 07645, United States
    • Yelena Janjigian, MD · Contact · 646-888-4186
    Recruiting
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Suffolk-Commack (Limited protocol activity)
    Commack, New York 11725, United States
    • Yelena Janjigian, MD · Contact · 646-888-4186
    Recruiting
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester (Limited Protocol Activities)
    Harrison, New York 10604, United States
    • Yelena Janjigian, MD · Contact · 646-888-4186
    Recruiting
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (All Protocol Activities)
    New York, New York 10065, United States
    • Yelena Y Janjigian, MD · Contact · 646-888-4186
    Recruiting
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Nassau (Limited Protocol Activities)
    Uniondale, New York 11553, United States
    • Yelena Janjigian, MD · Contact · 646-888-4186
    Recruiting
  • University of Pennsylvania (Data Collection Only)
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States
    • Ryan Massa, MD · Contact · 215-316-5151
    Recruiting
  • MD Anderson Cancer Center (Data Collection Only)
    Houston, Texas 77030, United States
    • Jennifer Li, MD · Contact · 855-760-5921
    Recruiting
07

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center supports the international committee of medical journal editors (ICMJE) and the ethical obligation of responsible sharing of data from clinical trials. The protocol summary, a statistical summary, and informed consent form will be made available on clinicaltrials.gov when required as a condition of Federal awards, other agreements supporting the research and/or as otherwise required. Requests for deidentified individual participant data can be made beginning 12 months after publication and for up to 36 months post publication. Deidentified individual participant data reported in the manuscript will be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement and may only be used for approved proposals. Requests may be made to: crdatashare@mskcc.org.

08

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06123338
Lead sponsor
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Collaborators
Genentech, Inc., Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Nov 8, 2023
Start date
Feb 1, 2024
Primary completion
Nov 30, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Nov 30, 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 24, 2026

Study contacts

Yelena Janjigian, MD
Contact
janjigiy@mskcc.org
646-888-4186
Samuel Cytryn, MD
Contact
cytryns@mskcc.org
Yelena Janjigian, MD
principal investigator · Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Oversight

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

Interested in this study?

Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.

Contact study team

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions 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.

Start the discussion