Impact of methotrexate monotherapy in patients with idiopathic granulomatous mastitis

Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is a rare benign inflammatory disease of the breast. It is characterized by chronic inflammation and granuloma formation. We designed this study to assess the compliance and remission status of patients with IGM on methotrexate treatment.

The study included 114 patients who were treated with methotrexate for at least 1 year after a biopsy-proven diagnosis of IGM at a tertiary rheumatology center between January 2017 and February 2024. Demographic characteristics, clinical findings, laboratory parameters, treatment options and patient compliance with treatment were obtained from patient files.

The mean age of patients diagnosed with IGM was 32.3 ± 6.3 years. Patients were treated with a combination of methotrexate, and complete remission was achieved in 97 patients (85.1%) after an average of one year. When Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed for the average annual methotrexate use, the average duration of drug use in patients with IGM was found to be 11.24 (10.88-11.49) months.

The use of methotrexate treatment in IGM patients has been shown to be both successful and well tolerated when evaluated according to the duration of drug administration.