Open-label, Phase II, Study of Everolimus Plus Letrozole in Postmenopausal Women With ER+, HER2- Metastatic or Locally Advanced Breast Cancer (Bolero-4)
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01698918 |
Recruitment Status
:
Active, not recruiting
First Posted
: October 3, 2012
Last Update Posted
: November 14, 2017
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Condition or disease | Intervention/treatment | Phase |
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Hormone Receptor Positive Breast Cancer | Drug: Everolimus Drug: Letrozole Drug: Exemestane Drug: Alcohol-free dexamethasone mouth rinse | Phase 2 |
Study Type : | Interventional (Clinical Trial) |
Actual Enrollment : | 202 participants |
Allocation: | Non-Randomized |
Intervention Model: | Single Group Assignment |
Masking: | None (Open Label) |
Primary Purpose: | Treatment |
Official Title: | An Open-label, Phase II, Single-arm Study of Everolimus in Combination With Letrozole in the Treatment of Postmenopausal Women With Estrogen Receptor Positive HER2 Negative Metastatic or Locally Advanced Breast Cancer |
Actual Study Start Date : | March 7, 2013 |
Estimated Primary Completion Date : | June 22, 2020 |
Estimated Study Completion Date : | June 22, 2020 |

Arm | Intervention/treatment |
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Experimental: Everolimus + letrozole/exemestane
Enrolled patients will receive everolimus in combination with letrozole in the first line setting until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or withdrawal of consent. Following disease progression in the first line setting, patients will be offered everolimus in combination with exemestane. Patients who discontinue treatment in the first line setting due to unacceptable toxicity or due to withdrawal of consent will not be offered everolimus plus exemestane. Those patients treated in the second line setting will continue treatment until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or withdrawal of consent.
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Drug: Everolimus
Everolimus will be self-administered as a daily dose of 10mg (two 5mg tablets) taken orally continuously from study day 1 until progression of disease, unacceptable toxicity or withdrawal of consent. Everolimus should be taken at the same time every day. Everolimus tablets should be swallowed whole with a glass of water once daily, either consistently with food or consistently without food. Tablets should not be chewed or crushed.
Other Name: RAD001
Drug: Letrozole
1st line study treatment: Letrozole will be self administered as a daily dose of 2.5mg continuously from study day 1 until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or withdrawal of consent and should be taken at the same time every day, consistently with or without food. Everolimus and letrozole tablets should be taken together.
Other Name: Femara
Drug: Exemestane
2nd Line Study Treatment: If patients progress on everolimus + letrozole, patients will be offered everolimus + exemestane. Exemestane will be self administered as a daily dose of 25mg taken orally continuously until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or withdrawal of consent and should be taken at the same time every day after a meal. Everolimus and exemestane tablets should be taken together.
Other Name: Aromasin
Drug: Alcohol-free dexamethasone mouth rinse
At the onset of symptoms suggestive of stomatitis patients must contact the study site. Upon confirmation of stomatitis at the site, patients in countries where the alcohol-free 0.5mg/5ml dexamethasone oral solution is commercially available will be randomly assigned to take either dexamethasone 0.5 mg/5ml mouth rinse or the standard of care used to treat stomatitis at the patient's center. The mouth rinse will be self administered at a daily dose of 10ml 3 times per day. Patients will be instructed to swish and expectorate the mouth rinse. Patients will also be instructed to fill out the Oral Stomatitis Daily Questionnaire (OSDQ) at home every day until the patient recovers. The mouth rinse will be self administered at a daily dose of 10ml 3 times per day.Patients will be instructed to swish and expectorate the mouth rinse.
Other Name: alcohol-free dexamethasone 0.5 mg/5ml
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- Percentage of patients progression-free after completion of 1st line treatment (everolimus + letrozole) [ Time Frame: 12 months after last patient recruited ]In this study Progression free survival is defined as the time from the date of enrollment to the date of first documented progression or death due to any cause. If a patient has not had an event, PFS will be censored at the date of the last adequate tumor assessment.
- Overall response rate and clinical benefit rate in patients receiving the first line study treatment (everolimus + letrozole) [ Time Frame: Baseline, every 8 weeks ]Overall response rate (ORR) is defined as the proportion of patients with best overall response of complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) according to RECIST. Clinical benefit rate (CBR) is defined as the proportion of patients with best overall response of CR, PR or stable disease with a duration of 24 weeks or longer according to RECIST. ORR and CBR will be calculated based on the full analysis set, using local radiologist's/investigator's tumor assessment. Patients with only non-measurable disease at baseline will be included in the numerator if they achieve a complete response
- Percentage of patients progression-free after completion of 2nd line treatment (everolimus + exemestane) [ Time Frame: Baseline, every 8 weeks ]In this study progression free survival in the second line is defined as the time interval between the start of the second line treatment and documented disease progression or death due to any cause reported during or after second line treatment
- Overall survival of patients receiving first line study treatment (everolimus + letrozole) [ Time Frame: Continuous during the study and every 12 weeks after last treatment ]The overall survival (OS) following first line treatment with Everolimus + Letrozole is defined as the time from the date of receiving first line study treatment to date of death due to any cause.
- Reduction in severity and duration of oral stomatitis [ Time Frame: Upon onset of 1st stomatitis, patient will complete diary daily until resolution of stomatitis ]Analysis for this objective will be based on Patient reported outcomes data for the first incidence of stomatitis AE. The mean, standard deviation and 95% confidence interval of each severity item in the questionnaire will be calculated at each day for the two therapeutic interventions for stomatitis groups and presented graphically. The duration of the first stomatitis incidence will be calculated using the dates reported in the PRO.
- Assessment of safety based on the frequency of adverse events that fall outside normal pre-specified ranges [ Time Frame: Continuous during the study, up to 28 days after last treatment ]The assessment of safety will be based mainly on the frequency of adverse events and on the number of laboratory values that fall outside of pre-determined ranges. Other safety data (e.g., electrocardiogram, vital signs) will be considered as appropriate. All safety data will be listed. For all safety analyses, the safety population will be used.
- Overall response rate and clinical benefit rate in patients receiving the second line study treatment (everolimus + exemestane) [ Time Frame: Baseline, every 8 weeks ]Overall response rate (ORR) is defined as the proportion of patients with best overall response of complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) according to RECIST. Clinical benefit rate (CBR) is defined as the proportion of patients with best overall response of CR, PR or stable disease with a duration of 24 weeks or longer according to RECIST. ORR and CBR will be calculated based on the full analysis set, using local radiologist's/investigator's tumor assessment. Patients with only non-measurable disease at baseline will be included in the numerator if they achieve a complete response
- Reduction in severity and duration of oral stomatitis [ Time Frame: Upon onset of 1st stomatitis and in countries where the alcohol-free dexamethasone solution (0.5mg/5ml) is commercially available, patient will be randomised to dexamethasone oral solution rinse or standard of care ]Analysis for this objective will be based on Patient reported outcomes data for the first incidence of stomatitis AE. The mean, standard deviation and 95% confidence interval of each severity item in the questionnaire will be calculated at each day for the two therapeutic interventions for stomatitis groups and presented graphically. The duration of the first stomatitis incidence will be calculated using the dates reported in the PRO.
- Percentage of patients with clinical benfit during extension phase [ Time Frame: Every 12 weeks up to 36 months ]Clinical benefit as assessed by investigator at scheduled visits to determine continuation of treatment

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Ages Eligible for Study: | 18 Years and older (Adult, Senior) |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | Female |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | No |
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patients 18 years old or greater
- Patients with metastatic or locally advanced, unresectable breast cancer not amenable to curative treatment by surgery or radiotherapy
- Histological or cytological confirmation of estrogen-receptor positive (ER+) human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-) breast cancer
- Postmenopausal women
- No prior treatment for metastatic breast cancer
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patients with only non-measurable lesions other than bone metastases (e.g., pleural effusion, ascites, etc)
- Patients who have received prior hormonal or any other systemic therapy for metastatic breast cancer.
- Patients may have received prior neoadjuvant or adjuvant endocrine therapy. In the case of neoadjuvant or adjuvant NSAI (letrozole/anastrozole) therapy patients must have completed therapy at least 1 year prior to study enrollment.
- Previous treatment with mTOR inhibitors.
- Known hypersensitivity to mTOR inhibitors, e.g., sirolimus (rapamycin).
- Other protocol-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria may apply

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01698918

Study Director: | Novartis Pharmaceuticals | Novartis Pharmaceuticals |
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
Responsible Party: | Novartis Pharmaceuticals |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT01698918 History of Changes |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
CRAD001Y24135 2012-003065-17 ( EudraCT Number ) |
First Posted: | October 3, 2012 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | November 14, 2017 |
Last Verified: | November 2017 |
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product: | Yes | |
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product: | No |
Keywords provided by Novartis ( Novartis Pharmaceuticals ):
metastatic breast cancer, locally advanced breast cancer, HER2-, ER+, everolimus, Afinitor |
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Breast Neoplasms Neoplasms by Site Neoplasms Breast Diseases Skin Diseases Dexamethasone acetate Dexamethasone Letrozole Exemestane Everolimus Sirolimus BB 1101 Ethanol Anti-Inflammatory Agents Antiemetics |
Autonomic Agents Peripheral Nervous System Agents Physiological Effects of Drugs Gastrointestinal Agents Glucocorticoids Hormones Hormones, Hormone Substitutes, and Hormone Antagonists Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal Antineoplastic Agents Protease Inhibitors Enzyme Inhibitors Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action Anti-Infective Agents, Local Anti-Infective Agents Central Nervous System Depressants |