Updated June 2026 · ClinicalTrials.gov

RECRUITINGPhase 2INTERVENTIONAL

Ex Vivo Drug Response Evaluation for Next Generation Care of Brain Metastases

Ex Vivo Drug Response Evaluation for Next Generation Care of Brain Metastases (NCT06620380) is a Phase 2 interventional studying Brain Metastases and Brain Metastases, Adult, sponsored by University of Zurich. RECRUITING as of the most recent ClinicalTrials.gov update. Talk to your doctor before contacting the trial site.

About This Trial

Pharmacoscopy refers to an ex vivo real-time drug sensitivity profiling platform that has been shown to be of value in the treatment of leukemia (Snijder et al. 2017) (Kornauth et al. 2022) and may help to identify novel treatment opportunities for brain tumors as well (Lee et al. 2022). The rationale for pharmacoscopy-based drug sensitivity testing on real-time patient biopsies or surgery material is multiple: measuring drug response and sensitivity directly in real-time patient material, overcomes the problem of limited molecular biomarkers for established targeted therapeutic options and can identify effective drugs even for non-targeted therapies such as chemotherapy. It can also identify hitherto unknown specific vulnerabilities of cancer cells. Furthermore, testing directly on patient material overcomes the limitations of patient-derived cell cultures, organoids, and patient xenografts, as their prolonged culture times risk cellular adaptations and clonal selection that alter drug sensitivity. Pharmacoscopy maintains the tumor cell composition, including bystander cells or tumor microenvironment, and limits cell culture to max 48 hours. Furthermore, pharmacoscopy measures drug responses on a single-cell and on a high-content level, uniquely allowing to measure the drug sensitivity of tumor cells, and allowing to compare it to the drug cytotoxicity on healthy cells from the same patient. This relative readout has previously been shown to be essential for the correct prediction of a clinical response in haematological malignancies (Snijder et al. 2017) (Kornauth et al. 2022). The aim of this study is to generate preliminary data regarding superiority of the personalized pharmacoscopy-guided approach compared to a standard non-pharmacoscopy-guided approach, in patients with brain metastases with an indication for surgery, and limited therapeutic systemic options according to the treating physician.

What Stage of Research Is This?

Phase 2 trials evaluate whether a treatment actually works against Brain Metastases and continue monitoring side effects. Phase 2 enrolls larger groups (typically 100–300 patients) and produces the first real efficacy signal. A successful Phase 2 readout is what unlocks the much larger Phase 3 confirmatory trials needed for FDA approval.

This trial is currently recruiting participants. The sponsor has registered the study with ClinicalTrials.gov as actively enrolling, which means new applicants who meet the eligibility criteria can be considered for screening. Trial status can change between updates — confirm current recruiting status with the study contact before traveling for a screening visit.

Target enrollment of 102 participants puts this in the typical range for a Phase 2-style efficacy study or a moderate Phase 3 trial in a focused Brain Metastases subpopulation. At this scale, the study has enough statistical power to detect a clear treatment effect but is not the largest cohort in the field.

Who May Be Eligible (Plain English)

Who May Qualify: - Patients must be 18 years or older on the day of signing the willing to sign a consent form, female or male. - Patients must have a Karnofsky performance status of 60 or more - Patients must have limited systemic therapeutic options as per treating physician judgement. The number of previous lines of therapies is not limited. - Patients with a tumor with a targetable oncogenic driver mutation should have already been treated with a targeted agent and options must have been exhausted. - Patients must have a clinical indication for surgery for probable brain metastasis - Patients will be considered eligible for the study only if the diagnosis of brain metastasis has been diagnosed by tissue sample (biopsy-confirmed) on the sample obtained during the surgery performed after signing the willing to sign a consent form form for the trial. - Any type of primary cancer is allowed: breast cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, other cancers. Patients may have several primary cancers. - Patients must have adequate bone marrow, renal and hepatic function documented at screening before surgery - Women of childbearing potential, including women who had their last menstruation in the last 2 years, must have a negative urinary or serum pregnancy test - Patients must have the ability to understand the requirements of the study, provide written willing to sign a consent form and authorization of use and disclosure of protected health information, and agree to abide by the study restrictions and return for the required assessments. - Written willing to sign a consent form for study participation must be signed and dated by the patient and the investigator prior to any study-related intervention. Who Should NOT Join This Trial: - Patients with rapidly progressive systemic disease - Patients with inability to undergo brain MRI evaluation. ...See full criteria on ClinicalTrials.gov Always talk to your doctor about whether this trial is right for you.

These are translations of the protocol\'s inclusion and exclusion criteria, simplified for patients and caregivers. The original clinical text appears below. Eligibility is ultimately confirmed by the trial site\'s screening process — this summary is a starting point for a conversation with your doctor, not a final determination.

Original Eligibility Criteria

View original clinical language

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients must be 18 years or older on the day of signing the informed consent, female or male. * Patients must have a Karnofsky performance status of 60 or more * Patients must have limited systemic therapeutic options as per treating physician judgement. The number of previous lines of therapies is not limited. * Patients with a tumor with a targetable oncogenic driver mutation should have already been treated with a targeted agent and options must have been exhausted. * Patients must have a clinical indication for surgery for probable brain metastasis * Patients will be considered eligible for the study only if the diagnosis of brain metastasis has been histologically confirmed on the sample obtained during the surgery performed after signing the informed consent form for the trial. * Any type of primary cancer is allowed: breast cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, other cancers. Patients may have several primary cancers. * Patients must have adequate bone marrow, renal and hepatic function documented at screening before surgery * Women of childbearing potential, including women who had their last menstruation in the last 2 years, must have a negative urinary or serum pregnancy test * Patients must have the ability to understand the requirements of the study, provide written informed consent and authorization of use and disclosure of protected health information, and agree to abide by the study restrictions and return for the required assessments. * Written informed consent for study participation must be signed and dated by the patient and the investigator prior to any study-related intervention. Exclusion Criteria: * Patients with rapidly progressive systemic disease * Patients with inability to undergo brain MRI evaluation. * Patients with progressive parenchymal brain metastases with an indication for requiring whole brain radiotherapy after surgery. Focal brain radiotherapy after surgery is allowed. * Judgement by the investigator that the patient is unlikely to comply with study procedures, restrictions and requirements. * Intention to become pregnant during the course of the study. * Female who are pregnant. * Female who are breastfeeding and who do not agree to discontinue nursing prior to the first treatment initiated during the study. * Sexually active males and females of childbearing potential who are not willing to use an effective contraceptive method during the study. Male participants who do not agree not to donate sperm.

Treatments Being Tested

DEVICE

Pharmacoscopy 1.0

Pharmacoscopy is currently an academically developed platform. The study is designed to investigate the clinical performance of this academic platform. In the interventional arm, the best candidate agent defined by pharmascopy will be considered to guide the therapeutic decision for each patient.

OTHER

Control

The next systemic treatment after surgery will be discussed, with the investigator and at the tumor board, considering also standard histopathological and molecular analysis, including next generation sequencing, molecular profiling analysis and previous treatments received

Locations (3)

Trial sites listed on ClinicalTrials.gov for this study. Site activation status can vary — confirm with the specific site before traveling for a screening visit.

University Hospital Basel

Basel, Switzerland

Cantonal Hospital St Gallen

Sankt Gallen, Switzerland

University Hospital Zurich

Zurich, Switzerland

How to Talk to Your Doctor About This Trial

Bring the printable summary of this trial — including the NCT ID (NCT06620380), the sponsor (University of Zurich), and the key eligibility criteria — to your next appointment. Your doctor can review the inclusion and exclusion criteria against your medical history, lab values, and current treatments to assess whether you are likely to qualify. They can also help you weigh whether trial participation makes sense alongside your existing care plan.

Useful questions to walk through together: What does the trial protocol require beyond standard care? How long is the active treatment phase, and how long is follow-up? Are there study visits at sites I can reach? Who pays for the trial-specific procedures, and who pays for standard-of-care portions? See our 25 questions to ask about clinical trials guide for a more complete checklist.

Authoritative Sources

The official record for this trial lives on ClinicalTrials.gov — the federal registry maintained by the National Library of Medicine at NIH. For background on how this trial fits into the FDA approval pathway, see the FDA drug approval process. For oncology-specific guidance for patients considering trials, the National Cancer Institute publishes patient-oriented overviews. International trial registries are aggregated by the WHO ICTRP.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the NCT06620380 clinical trial studying?

Who can participate in NCT06620380?

Eligibility for this trial depends on the specific inclusion and exclusion criteria set by the sponsor. The plain-English summary above translates the most important criteria into accessible language; the official clinical text is preserved in the collapsible section underneath. Whether you fit any specific trial is a medical decision your doctor needs to confirm — bring the trial information to your treating physician for a full review against your medical history.

How do I contact the trial site for NCT06620380?

Contact information registered with ClinicalTrials.gov is shown in the sidebar of this page. Before reaching out, confirm with your treating physician that this trial is appropriate for your situation. The trial site will then walk you through the screening process to determine final eligibility.

Is participating in a clinical trial safe?

Clinical trials in the United States are regulated by the FDA and overseen by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) that review the protocol for safety. Risk varies by trial — Phase 1 studies test new treatments in humans for the first time, while Phase 3 trials use treatments that have already passed earlier safety screening. The informed consent document for any specific trial details the known risks and what to expect. Discuss those risks with your physician before deciding whether to participate.

Where can I verify the data on this page?

Every detail on this page comes directly from the ClinicalTrials.gov API. Click "View on ClinicalTrials.gov" in the sidebar to see the official, unmodified record. The federal record is always authoritative; this page is a structured presentation with a plain-English eligibility translation. For background on how clinical trials are regulated, see the FDA drug approval process documentation.

How This Page Is Built

Every field on this page is pulled directly from the ClinicalTrials.gov API v2 — no estimates, no proxies. The plain-English eligibility translation is generated from the original protocol text and reviewed for fidelity to the underlying clinical criteria. The original clinical text remains visible in the collapsible section above so users and clinicians can verify the translation. Read the full methodology for the data pipeline and known limitations.

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Source: ClinicalTrials.gov API v2 record for NCT06620380. Maintained by the National Library of Medicine at NIH. Public domain. Cite as: "TrialFinderData. NCT06620380. Data: ClinicalTrials.gov."

Medical disclaimer: This page is informational, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor about whether a clinical trial is right for you.

Last updated 2026-06-26 · Data from ClinicalTrials.gov.