ClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT06943482IGMUpdated Apr 24, 2025

Comparing Effectiveness of Steroids and Methotrexate in Treatment of Chronic Inflammatory Breast Disease

A Phase 4 interventional study of Prednisolone and Methotrexate in Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis, sponsored by National University Hospital, Singapore. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in Singapore. Open to female participants aged 21 Years to 60 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-04-24.

Sponsored by National University Hospital, Singapore · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
40
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
21 Years to 60 Years
Sex
Female
01

Study summary

This research study is to determine the effectiveness of prednisolone and methotrexate for IGM patients over a period of one year, in terms of clinical and radiological response. Recruitment will be conducted in National University Hospital (NUH) for patients diagnosed with IGM.

02

Conditions studied

  • Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis

Keywords

  • Breast
  • Breast Conditions
  • Mastits
  • Granulomatous Mastitis
  • Inflammation
  • Breast Surgery
  • Rhematologist
03

In context

Granulomatous Mastitis

22 studies on the registry are indexed under Granulomatous Mastitis; 7 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 40 is below the median of 61 across 12 interventional studies indexed under Granulomatous Mastitis.

Browse Granulomatous Mastitis studies →

Lead sponsor

National University Hospital, Singapore is the lead sponsor of 454 studies on the registry; 99 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
21 Years to 60 Years
Sexes eligible
Female
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Women, aged between 21 and 60 years
  • Positive diagnosis of idiopathic granulomatous mastitis based on histopathology results
  • Willing and able to give

Exclusion Criteria (Patients who meet any of the following prerequisites will not be allowed to take part in this study):

  • Women who are currently pregnant or breastfeeding
  • Cognitive impairment which prevents the patient from giving voluntary consent
  • History of any psychiatric conditions such as depression, psychosis, schizophrenia etc.
  • History of cancer in the past 5 years
  • History of abnormal renal or liver function
  • History of diabetes mellitus
  • History of pulmonary lung disease, pneumonitis, or related conditions
  • and/or carrier
  • Diagnosed with tuberculosis (Positive microbiological evaluation for Grocott Methenamine Silver stain and Ziehl- Neelsen stain)
  • Any or anti-inflammatory medications such as NSAIDS for the past 3 months
  • Concomitant medication that may have with prednisolone and methotrexate use
  • to components or drug products of prednisolone and methotrexate
  • Vaccination with prior to or during treatment
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(7)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

Live vaccines

Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
40 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Steroid

    Drug: Prednisolone · Drug: Omeprazole 20 mg

  • Experimental
    Methotrexate

    Drug: Methotrexate · Drug: Folic Acid 5 MG

Interventions

  • 20mg of prednisolone will be prescribed, taken orally, and daily for first month followed by tapering doses of 15mg over one month, then 12.5mg for one month, proceeding to 10mg for one month, subsequently taking 7.5mg for one month, and lastly 5mg for one month.

  • 10mg of methotrexate will be prescribed to be taken once a week for one month. The dosage will be increased to 15mg of methotrexate taken once a week on the 1st (T1) month clinical visit and will be further increased to 20mg of methotrexate taken once a week on the 2nd (T2) month clinical visit. There will be no further escalation of dosage after this visit.

  • 5mg of folic acid is to be taken together with methotrexate once a week.

  • Omeprazole will be prescribed at 20mg to protect the stomach lining.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Proportion of patients who achieved clinical or radiological complete response by 6 months

    Time frame: 6 months

  2. Time to clinical response and time to radiological response

    Time frame: 6 months

  3. Proportion of patients with relapse in a year within affected breast between each arm.

    Time frame: 1 year

Secondary outcomes

  1. Evaluation of side effects.

    Time frame: 1 year

  2. Evaluation of of treatment failure (TF) rate

    Time frame: 6 months

  3. Evaluation of frequency of percutaneous or surgical intervention required

    Time frame: 6 months

  4. Evaluation of potential unique pattern of gene expression that can be used to diagnose IGM and predict treatment response

    Time frame: 3 years

  5. Evaluation of potential biomarkers that may predict response to treatment: eg IL-6, CRP and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR)

    Depending on the biomarkers tested, there will be different unit of measurements. Some examples of biomarkers that may be tested are: CRP: mg/l IL-6: pg/ml NLR: ratio

    Time frame: 3 years

  6. Evaluation of patient reported outcome measures

    Most of our questions are on a scale from 1 - 5, with some yes or no question and an open question at the end.

    Time frame: 3 years

  7. Validate survey instrument for IGM patients

    The survey is adopted from SF-36 for general health and EORTC BR23 for body image, breast health and pain.

    Time frame: 3 years

07

Study locations

1 site
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Altintoprak F, Kivilcim T, Ozkan OV. Aetiology of idiopathic granulomatous mastitis. World J Clin Cases. 2014 Dec 16;2(12):852-8. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v2.i12.852. PubMed 25516860 ↗
  • Manogna, P., Dev, B., Joseph, L.D. et al. Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis-our experience. Egypt J Radiol Nucl Med 51, 15 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43055-019-0126-4
  • Kehribar, D. Y., Duran, T. I., Cetinkaya, G. K., Polat, A. K., Ozgen, M. (2020). Evaluation of Symptoms, Depression and Anxiety Levels in Young Women with Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis. Int J Acad Med Pharm, 2(2), 57-61. https://doi.org/10.29228/jamp.42734
  • Steuer AB, Stern MJ, Cobos G, Castilla C, Joseph KA, Pomeranz MK, Femia AN. Clinical Characteristics and Medical Management of Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis. JAMA Dermatol. 2020 Apr 1;156(4):460-464. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2019.4516. PubMed 31968055 ↗
  • Al Awfi MM, Al Rahbi SK. Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis: Six years of experience and the current evidence in literature. Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J. 2023 Feb;23(1):36-41. doi: 10.18295/squmj.4.2022.030. Epub 2023 Feb 23. PubMed 36865415 ↗
  • Kayahan M, Kadioglu H, Muslumanoglu M. Management of Patients with Granulomatous Mastitis: Analysis of 31 Cases. Breast Care (Basel). 2012 Jun;7(3):226-230. doi: 10.1159/000337758. Epub 2012 Jun 27. PubMed 22872797 ↗
  • Kafadar MT, Bahadir MV, Girgin S. Low-Dose Methotrexate Use in Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis: An Alternative Treatment Method. Breast Care (Basel). 2021 Aug;16(4):402-407. doi: 10.1159/000513879. Epub 2021 Jan 22. PubMed 34602947 ↗
  • Kim J, Tymms KE, Buckingham JM. Methotrexate in the management of granulomatous mastitis. ANZ J Surg. 2003 Apr;73(4):247-9. doi: 10.1046/j.1445-1433.2002.02564.x. PubMed 12662235 ↗
  • Postolova A, Troxell ML, Wapnir IL, Genovese MC. Methotrexate in the Treatment of Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis. J Rheumatol. 2020 Jun 1;47(6):924-927. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.181205. Epub 2019 Jun 15. PubMed 31203215 ↗
  • Sheybani F, Sarvghad M, Naderi H, Gharib M. Treatment for and clinical characteristics of granulomatous mastitis. Obstet Gynecol. 2015 Apr;125(4):801-807. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000000734. PubMed 25751209 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Start is estimated for Jul 2025; primary completion for Feb 2028, 31 months later.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Mar 17, 2025
First posted
Apr 24, 2025
StartEst.
Jul 1, 2025
Primary completionEst.
Feb 1, 2028
CompletionEst.
Feb 1, 2028
Last update
Apr 24, 2025
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 24, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06943482
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 24, 2025
Start date
Jul 1, 2025 (estimated)
Primary completion
Feb 1, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Feb 1, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Apr 24, 2025

Study contacts

Serene Si Ning Goh, MBBS
Contact
serene_sn_goh@nuhs.edu.sg
+65 9100 6954
Serene Si Ning Goh, MBBS
principal investigator · National

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Nov 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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Studies of the drug tested here: Methotrexate

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