Pre-Operative, Single-Dose Ipilimumab and/or Cryoablation in Early Stage/Resectable Breast Cancer

Study Summary

This study is being done to evaluate the safety of two strategies called "cryoablation" and "immune therapy" in women with curable early stage breast cancer. "Cryoablation" is a procedure performed by an expert doctor called a radiologist. The radiologist uses (magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to insert a needle directly into a cancer. Very cold temperatures are then applied through the needle to kill the cancer cells. Some of the killed cancer cells will be broken into pieces that can be recognized by a person's immune system. The "immune therapy" in this study is a drug called ipilimumab. Normally the immune system makes "T cells" that can kill cancer cells when turned on. The cancer-killing T cell activity is controlled by a molecule called CTLA4. Ipilimumab works by turning off CTLA4. Turning off CTLA4 allows the cancer-fighting T cells to remain active Ipilimumab is an antibody drug has been made in a laboratory for patient use and was recently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with a type of skin cancer called melanoma. An antibody is a normal protein that the immune system uses to find and kill germs like bacteria and viruses. This study is being done because the researchers believe that when cryoablation is combined with immune therapy, a person's immune system can be trained to recognize that person's cancer. This may prevent that cancer from coming back in the future. In other words, it is hoped that by adding cryoablation with ipilimumab before the mastectomy, the body will remain cancer free long after the mastectomy is performed. The first step in determining whether cryoablation and immune therapy can be used to cure breast cancer is to evaluate the safety of each strategy alone and then in combination in a small group of patients.

Primary Outcome

of pre-operative ipilimumab administration and intratumoral cryoablation administered either alone or in combination in patients with early stage breast cancer. Safety will be evaluated for all treated subjects using National Cancer Institute (NCI) Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v4.0 (CTCAE).

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BIOLOGICAL Ipilimumab
• PROCEDURE Cryoablation

Study Locations (1)