ClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT07786051DEMETERUpdated Aug 25, 2026

DiEtary Mimicry by Glucocorticoid Modulation Evaluation in ER+ Metastatic Breast Cancer Treatment: Efficacy and Response (DEMETER Trial)

A Phase 2 interventional study of Dexamethasone (Oral) in Breast Cancer, sponsored by The Netherlands Cancer Institute. Not yet recruiting. Open to female participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-25.

Sponsored by The Netherlands Cancer Institute · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

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Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
80
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
Female
01

Where this study stands

Counted across the records on this site · 2026-11-14

Among 14 studies testing dexamethasone in Breast Neoplasms — 5 open to participants now, 5 under way, 1 of them phase 3. Dexamethasone · Breast Neoplasms.

Planned enrollment
7th of 14
80 · median 80
Started
2026
with 2 others
Phase 2
5 of 14
3 open now
Registered
12th of 14
by date

Among the 14 studies testing dexamethasone in Breast Neoplasms, this one is the 7th largest by planned enrollment, is one of 3 that started in 2026, is one of 5 in phase 2, and was the 12th registered.

Breast Neoplasms

14,832 studies on the registry are indexed under Breast Neoplasms; 3,320 are open to participants now.

Browse Breast Neoplasms studies →

Open to participants now

5 of the 14 studies testing dexamethasone in Breast Neoplasms are open now, in 1 country. Recruiting first, the newest first:

By country, each count listing its studies:

All 5 open studies →

About dexamethasone

Dexamethasone: first FDA approval 1958 (DECADRON), first EMA approval 2010. What it is approved for, and how studies give it, is on its page →

Who these studies take

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: 18 Years and older · female · no healthy volunteers.

The full table on the hub →

This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.

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Watch this landscapeDownload CSVNarrow it in search →With an account: a weekly mail of what changed among 14 studies testing dexamethasone in Breast Neoplasms, or all of them as a file.
02

Study summary

This is a single centre, open label, phase II clinical study consisting of two parts, each consisting of a different dose of the same intervention to investigate the efficacy of dexamethasone as an adjunct to endocrine therapy in the treatment of ER+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer after progression on the same endocrine therapy.

03

Conditions studied

  • Breast Cancer

Browse trials for

Keywords

  • ER positive
  • HER2 negative
  • Metastatic breast cancer
  • Dexamethasone
  • Endocrine treatment
04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
Female
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. Have provided written and are willing to comply to study procedures and treatment plan.
  2. Documentation of confirmed diagnosis of oestrogen receptor (ER) expression >10% breast cancer based on local laboratory results. Tumour must be negative as defined by American Society of Clinical Oncology - College of American Pathologists (ASCOCAP) guidelines. If HER2 status is unavailable, then testing must be performed/repeated.
  3. Have to treatment with aromatase inhibitors or Fulvestrant as monotherapy or in combination with CDK4/6 inhibitors in the 1st or in setting. Prior treatment discontinuation must not be > 8 weeks ago.
  4. Participants must meet one of the following criteria:

    1. Pre-menopausal women are required to have ovarian function suppression by means of bilateral oophorectomy or continued LHRH/GnRH agonists treatment.
    2. Are over the age of 60 years or are of status as defined by no menses for 12 months without an alternative medical cause. A high FSH level (>35 mIU/mL) in the postmenopausal range may be used to confirm a postmenopausal state.
  5. Have metastatic disease.
  6. At least 1 that would qualify as target lesion by v1.1, (assessed by the investigator) that can be accurately measured at baseline with CT or MRI and that is suitable for accurate repeated measurements. Lesions previously irradiated or subjected to other locoregional therapy will only be deemed measurable if disease progression at the treated site after completion of therapy is clearly documented.
  7. performance status 0-2.
  8. Have adequate organ function defined as follows:

    1. : >5.7 mmol/L.
    2. ANC: >1.0 mmol/L
    3. : ≥ 75 x109/L
    4. Transaminases: ASAT and ALAT ≤3 x (≤5.0 x ULN if liver metastases present);
    5. T. : ≤1.5 x ULN (≤3.0 x ULN if Gilbert's disease);
    6. : >30 ml/min/1,73 m2 (CKD-EPI)
  9. Has negative (Ag+Ab), surface antigen (HBsAg), or antibody (anti-HCV) test.
  10. For participants opting to provide an on-treatment and/or EOT :

    1. Lesion to be biopsied for this study is deemed accessible and clinically feasible according to the (sub) investigator.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Primary endocrine resistance: Progressed on endocrine therapy within 6 months of initiating treatment in the for advanced or mBC, or within first 2 years of endocrine therapy in the setting.
  2. such as massive uncontrolled effusions (pleural, pericardial, peritoneal), pulmonary lymphangitis, and >50% liver involvement which have risk of life-threatening complications in the short term.
  3. Known Central Nervous System (CNS) metastases.
  4. Current use of including local administration such as intranasal, intraocular, intra-articular, inhaled or topical application, and/or having ongoing conditions requiring long-term use of corticosteroids.
  5. History of and/or other adverse effects to corticosteroids.
  6. Known Diabetes mellitus (type 1 or type 2) or Random Blood Sugar (RBS) of ≥11.1 mmol/L.
  7. osteoporosis unless treated with denosumab or bisphosphonates.
  8. Have (history of) clinically significant ocular conditions such as glaucoma, papilledema and retinopathy.
  9. Presence of clinically significant or uncontrolled cardiovascular disease such as:

    1. Congestive Heart Failure: > (NYHA) class II.
    2. Coronary Artery Disease: Participants must not have unstable angina or angina de novo within the last 3 months and myocardial infarction in the last 6 months.
    3. Clinically significant cardiac arrhythmias.
    4. Therapy resistant hypertension in the opinion of investigator.
    5. For participants receiving Ribociclib: > 480 ms.
  10. Diagnosis of any other prior to C1D1, except those that are not believed to influence the participant's prognosis and do not require any further treatment. This includes but is not limited to adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer and carcinoma in situ of the cervix.
  11. Known history of psychosis or suicidal ideation.
  12. Are taking a prohibited medication (as defined in section 9.1.2) that cannot be discontinued for the duration of the study.
  13. Any other severe acute or chronic medical or psychiatric condition or laboratory abnormality that may increase the risk associated with study participation or may interfere with the interpretation of study results and, in the judgment of the clinician or investigator, would make the participant inappropriate for entry into this study.
  14. Participation in any other interventional study or receiving any other anti-cancer therapy other than endocrine therapy.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(26)

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.

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.

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.

Relapsed and refractory

Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.

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.

Metastases

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

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.

GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)

GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².

Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.

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.

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.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

QT and QTc

On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.

The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.

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.

05

Study design

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

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Part 1: Dose 1 Dexamethasone + prior ET

    Dose 1 = Dexamethasone 3mg once daily, 1 week on, 3 weeks off schedule

    Drug: Dexamethasone (Oral)

  • Experimental
    Part 2: Dose 2 Dexamethasone + prior ET

    Dose 2 = Dexamethasone either 1.5mg or 4mg once daily, 1 week on, 3 weeks off schedule. Depending on the results of Part 1.

    Drug: Dexamethasone (Oral)

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Clinical Benefit Rate, which is defined as the proportion of participants having stable disease, partial response or complete response at the 16th week tumour evaluation.

    Time frame: At the 16th week tumour evaluation.

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided — To be determined

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Start is estimated for Nov 2026; primary completion for Nov 2028, 24 months later.

Of 1,070 non-industry phase 2 interventional studies under Breast Neoplasms, half reached primary completion within 56 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 34 and three quarters within 89. This study's planned 24 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 1,302 studies reached it within 51 months; a quarter within 30 and three quarters within 82.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Aug 21, 2026
First posted
Aug 25, 2026
StartEst.
Nov 1, 2026
Primary completionEst.
Nov 1, 2028
CompletionEst.
Nov 1, 2028
Last update
Aug 25, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 25, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07786051
Collaborators
Oncode Institute
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Aug 25, 2026
Start date
Nov 1, 2026 (estimated)
Primary completion
Nov 1, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Nov 1, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 25, 2026

Study contacts

Wilbert Zwart, PhD
Contact
w.zwart@nki.nl
+31205129111
Vincent Dezentjé, MD PhD
principal investigator · The Netherlands Cancer Institute

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Jul 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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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.

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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: Dexamethasone

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