Turkish scientists find efficient cure for IGM disease

Turkish scientists working on the cure of Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis (IGM) disease obtained successful drug treatment results in their research.

Research associates from Ondokuz Mayis University, Prof. Dr. Metin Özgen, and Dr. Demet Yalçın, completed their research which they have been conducting for two years for non-surgical treatment of IGM, a rare inflammatory breast disease in women.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Dr. Özgen said that they revolutionized IGM disease treatment, which was thought to be only with breast surgery until now.

He pointed out that IGM disease shows symptoms with a mass in the breast, noting that it can cause severe physical and psychological problems in young women due to the confusion with breast cancer.

Özgen went onto say that the only remedy was to surgically remove some parts or whole breast, as no effective drug has been found in its treatment to date.

"Despite the surgical operations, recurrence of the disease in many patients had become a nightmare for women. With the drug we discovered, we managed to treat our young women without surgery," he said.

He noted that the potential risks of surgery for expectant mothers, such as losing the breast, were prevented with the discovery.

Dr. Kehribar said that the newly developed drug treatment has minimal side effects and is cheaper than surgical intervention.

"With cortisone treatment, our young women had to struggle with this disease for many years. We applied methotrexate treatment to our patients for two years. We determined that the treatment cured the disease very quickly without surgery," she said.

She noted that the discovery was published in Nov. 2020 in the American Journal of Medical Science, one of America's most prestigious journals.