Trial reportBreast cancer research and treatment2024
Circulating tumour DNA dynamics during alternating chemotherapy and hormonal therapy in metastatic breast cancer: the ALERT study.
Trial report in Breast cancer research and treatment, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02681523 (ALERT), which is not on this map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
ALERT: A Phase II Study of Alternating Eribulin and Hormonal Therapy in Pre-treated ER+ve Breast Cancer.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Non-Invasive Diagnosis of Early Breast Cancer: Current and Emerging Liquid Biopsy Biomarkers.Cancers · 2026Review
- Liquid biopsies in precision oncology for older adults with cancer.NPJ precision oncology · 2026Review
- Clinical Validity of Repeated Circulating Tumor Cell Enumeration as an Early Treatment Monitoring Tool for Metastatic Breast Cancer in the PREDICT Global Pooled Analysis.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2025Article
- Circulating tumor DNA to monitor treatment response in solid tumors and advance precision oncology.NPJ precision oncology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeAlthough changes in circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in breast cancer are well described, the kinetics of their fluctuations has not been described over short timescales. We investigated ctDNA dynamics during alternating cycles of chemotherapy and hormonal treatment in pre-treated patients with oestrogen receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer.
methodsPatients received alternating, 9-week cycles of eribulin and aromatase inhibitors (AIs). The clinical primary endpoint, progression-free survival (PFS), was monitored at 3, 6 and 9 months; secondary endpoints, clinical benefit rate (CBR), safety and tolerability profiles, were also assessed. Importantly, ctDNA fluctuations were monitored using the Oncomine™ Breast cfDNA assay to test whether biomarkers may change rapidly between chemotherapy and aromatase inhibitor (AI) treatment in the setting of advanced breast cancer, potentially reflecting disease dynamics.
resultsThe median PFS was 202 days (95% CI: 135-undefined) and 235 days (95% CI: 235-undefined) at 6 and 9 months, respectively, with a 50% CBR at both 6 and 9 months. Dynamic changes in ctDNA were observed in short timescales between chemotherapy and AI treatment and support the clinical benefit (CB) seen in individual patients and, critically, appear informative of acquired resistance in real time.
conclusionChanges in ctDNA can occur rapidly and reflect changes in patients' clinical tumour responses (NCT02681523).
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Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.