Safety of Continuing CHemotherapy in Overt Left Ventricular Dysfunction Using Antibodies to HER-2 (SCHOLAR)

The SCHOLAR study design will be a modified phase I, non-randomized clinical study.

Initially a cohort of 5 participants will be enrolled. They will continue to receive trastuzumab. All participants in SCHOLAR will also be prescribed standard-of-care treatment for patients with LV systolic dysfunction, including the beta-blocker, carvedilol, and the ACE-I, ramipril, as tolerated, at the maximum doses tolerated, up to carvedilol 25mg BID and ramipril 10mg once daily. If at any time 1 or more of the first 5 participants develop cDLT, de-escalation will occur. De-escalation will involve a change in the eligibility criteria to exclude patients with LVEF <45% and patients with NYHA class II, III, or IV heart failure. A further 5 patients will then be recruited. If 2 or more of the second 5 participants develop cDLT after de-escalation, the intervention will be considered unsafe, and the study will be closed. If the intervention is considered safe either using the initial eligibility criteria or the de-escalated eligibility criteria, the study will be closed after 20 participants have been recruited. If at any time during the study >20% of participants develop cDLT, the intervention will be considered unsafe, and the study will be closed.

Patients will be seen by a cardiologist at the following time points (referenced from the baseline visit): baseline, 3 weeks ± 1 week, 6 weeks ± 1 week, 3 months ± 1 week, 6 months ± 1 week, 9 months ± 1 week, 12 month ± 1 week