3 September 2019
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued draft guidelines for industry, which encourage the inclusion of male breast cancer patients in clinical trials that evaluate breast cancer therapies. The guidelines note that “eligibility criteria for clinical trials of breast cancer drugs should allow for inclusion of both males and females” and that “scientific rationale should be included in the protocol when proposing to exclude males from breast cancer trials.” There is a 60-day open comment period on the guideline.
In the US, approximately 2600 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, approximately 1% of all new breast cancer cases. Men tend to be diagnosed at more advanced stages compared with women, and there are about 500 male breast cancer related deaths in the US annually. Breast cancer in men is usually treated in a similar manner as in women. However, because men are typically not included in breast cancer clinical trials, it is not known if this is an optimal approach. One of the primary reasons that men are excluded from breast cancer clinical trials is that the disease is uncommon – setting up a vicious cycle where little progress is made. The statement noted that “FDA does not intend to consider low expected accrual rates of male patients with breast cancer to be a sufficient scientific rationale for excluding them from a clinical trial.”
This is most certainly a welcome step towards improving the understanding and treatment of male breast cancer.
