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ETHAN - ET for Male BC

  • PhasePhase 2
  • StatusRecruiting
  • Planned enrollment60 people
  • Recruiting US sites9
  • SponsorJose Pablo Leone
  • RegistryNCT05501704

Recruitment re-checked on ClinicalTrials.gov Oct 30, 2026. Public record; not medical advice.

ETHAN - ET for Male BC: a one-minute explainerNCT055017041 min

Eligibility

Who can join

The film gives the main points. The full list below is copied from the registry; the study team makes the final decision.

  • Age18 Years to no maximum
  • SexMale
  • Healthy volunteersNo

You may be able to join if

  • Men aged 18 years or older, with diagnosis of invasive breast cancer who have not undergone surgical resection of the primary tumor and axillary nodes.
  • Stage I, II, or III per American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging 8th edition (112).
  • Breast cancer must be hormone receptor-positive and HER2-negative according to definition below assessed by local pathology.
  • Hormone receptor-positive is defined as: positivity for at least one of the hormone receptors (estrogen receptor [ER] or progesterone receptor [PR]) by IHC. ER and PR assays are considered positive if there are > 1% positive tumor nuclei in the samples.
  • HER2-negative is defined per the current American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists Clinical Practice Guideline (113).
  • Patients with multifocal or multicentric disease are eligible if the treating investigator has determined the patient should be treated as ER-positive and HER2-negative.
  • Bilateral breast cancers are allowed if the treating investigator has determined the patient should be treated as ER-positive and HER2-negative.
  • Patients with a history of ipsilateral or contralateral DCIS or LCIS are eligible.
  • ECOG performance status ≤ 2.
  • Required laboratory values demonstrating adequate organ function:
  • ANC ≥ 1000/mm3
  • Hemoglobin ≥ 8 g/dl
  • Platelets ≥ 50,000/mm3
  • Serum creatinine ≤ 3.0 x ULN (institutional)
  • Total bilirubin ≤ 2.0 x ULN (institutional).
  • AST and ALT ≤ 5.0 x ULN (institutional)
  • Men with partners of childbearing potential must be willing to use one highly effective form of non-hormonal contraception or two effective forms of non-hormonal contraception by the patient and/or partner and continue its use for the duration of the study treatment and for 6 months after the last dose of study treatment.
  • Non-English-speaking patients are eligible but will be exempt from patient-completed questionnaires.
  • Willing and able to sign informed consent.
  • Willing to undergo breast biopsy after completion of window phase.
  • Patient is able to swallow oral medications.

You cannot join if

  • Prior endocrine therapy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or investigational therapy for the current breast cancer diagnosis.
  • Prior endocrine therapy, systemic therapy, radiation therapy, or investigational therapy for any other malignancy within the past 12 months.
  • Diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer (T4d).
  • Other concurrent serious diseases that may interfere with planned treatment, including severe cardiac disease, congestive heart failure (CHF) of New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class III or higher, severe pulmonary conditions/illness, uncontrolled infections.
  • The patient has serious and/or uncontrolled preexisting medical condition(s) that, in the judgment of the investigator, would preclude participation in this study (for example, interstitial lung disease, severe dyspnea at rest or requiring oxygen therapy, severe renal impairment [e.g. estimated creatinine clearance <30ml/min], history of major surgical resection involving the stomach or small bowel, or preexisting Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis or a preexisting chronic condition resulting in baseline Grade 2 or higher diarrhea).
  • The patient has active systemic bacterial infection (requiring intravenous [IV] antibiotics at time of initiating study treatment), fungal infection, or detectable viral infection (such as known human immunodeficiency virus positivity or with known active hepatitis B or C [for example, hepatitis B surface antigen positive]. Screening is not required for enrollment.
  • The patient has a personal history of any of the following conditions: syncope of cardiovascular etiology, ventricular arrhythmia of pathological origin (including, but not limited to, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation), or sudden cardiac arrest.

The treatment

How it is intended to work

This is how the treatment is meant to work. Whether it helps, and how safe it is, is what this trial is testing.

tamoxifen citrate. The citrate salt of an antineoplastic nonsteroidal selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM). Tamoxifen competitively inhibits the binding of estradiol to estrogen receptors, thereby preventing the receptor from binding to the estrogen-response element on DNA. The result is a reduction in DNA synthesis and cellular response to estrogen. In addition, tamoxifen up-regulates the production of transforming growth factor B (TGFb), a factor that inhibits tumor cell growth, and down-regulates insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), a factor that stimulates breast cancer cell growth. Tamoxifen also down-regulates protein kinase C (PKC) expression in a dose-dependant manner, inhibiting signal transduction and producing an antiproliferative effect in tumors such as malignant glioma and other cancers that overexpress PKC. NCI Drug Dictionary

anastrozole. A nonsteroidal inhibitor of estrogen synthesis that resembles paclitaxel in chemical structure. As a third-generation aromatase inhibitor, anastrozole selectively binds to and reversibly inhibits aromatase, a cytochrome P-450 enzyme complex found in many tissues including those of the premenopausal ovary, liver, and breast; aromatase catalyzes the aromatization of androstenedione and testosterone into estrone and estradiol, the final step in estrogen biosynthesis. In estrogen-dependent breast cancers, ananstrozole may inhibit tumor growth. NCI Drug Dictionary

Treatments listed in the registry

  • Tamoxifen (Drug): Taken orally
  • Anastrozole (Drug): Taken orally
  • Degarelix (Drug): Subcutaneous (under the skin) injection
  • Abemaciclib (Drug): Taken orally

The study

Treatment groups

Randomized · Parallel · masking: None

Window Phase Arm A: Tamoxifen (Experimental)

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive Tamoxifen 1x daily for 3 weeks (21days).

Window Phase Arm B: Anastrozole (Experimental)

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive Anastrozole 1x daily for 3 weeks (21days).

Window Phase Arm C: Anastrozole + Degarelix (Experimental)

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive Anastrozole 1x daily for 3 weeks (21days) and Degarelix on day 1 only.

Neoadjuvant Phase Arm D: Tamoxifen (Experimental)

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive Tamoxifen 1x daily for 4 cycles (4 months); each study cycle is 28 days.

Neoadjuvant Phase Arm E: Tamoxifen + Abemaciclib (Experimental)

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive Tamoxifen 1x daily and Abemaciclib 2x daily for 4 cycles (4 months); each study cycle is 28 days.

Neoadjuvant Phase Arm F: Anastrozole and Degarelix (Experimental)

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive Anastrozole 1x daily and Degarelix on day 1 of each cycle for 4 cycles (4 months); each study cycle is 28 days.

Neoadjuvant Phase Arm G: Anastrozole + Degarelix + Abemaciclib (Experimental)

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive Anastrozole 1x daily, Degarelix on day 1 of each cycle and Abemaciclib 2x daily for 4 cycles (4 months); each study cycle is 28 days.

What it involves

Procedures

As the registry describes them. Requirements to join, such as a tissue sample, are in the eligibility list above even when on-study procedures are optional. Ask the study team which steps apply to you.

  • questionnaires: Part of the study plan

Goals

What the study measures

Main goals

  • Change in Ki-67 (At the end of the 3-week window period.)
  • RCB index (At time of surgery.)

Other goals

  • Changes in estradiol levels
  • Changes in testosterone levels
  • Preoperative Endocrine Prognostic Index (PEPI) score

Planned enrollment: 60 (estimated).

Where

Recruiting US sites

  • Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington D.C., District of Columbia
  • Mayo Clinical Hospital Florida, Jacksonville, Florida
  • Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
  • UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
  • University of Pennsylvania, Abramson Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • Vanderbilt Cancer Center, Nashville, Tennessee
  • M. D. Anderson Cancer Center at University of Texas, Houston, Texas

Site status as of Oct 30, 2026. Check the live record before contacting a site.

Sources

Where this comes from

Registry record reviewed as fetched Oct 30, 2026, last updated by the sponsor Aug 23, 2026. Public record; not medical advice.

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