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

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.