LBCA Members Co-author npj Breast Cancer Journal Article Highlighting How Absence of Lobular Patients in Clinical Trials Impedes Finding Treatments
LBCA is happy to share a newly published article in npj Breast Cancer and acknowledge the efforts of its co-authors LBCA SAB Members Rachel Jankowitz and Patrick Derksen, ILC Grantee Karen Van Baelen, LBCA Executive Director Laurie Hutcheson, LBCA Patient Advocate Advisory Board members Ann Camden and Julia Levine, LBCA Travel Scholars Megan-Claire Chase and Valerie Fraser and LBCA sister organizations – the European Lobular Breast Cancer Consortium and Advocates.
The article titled “Reporting on invasive lobular breast cancer in clinical trials: a systematic review” provides a review of the representation and documentation of ILC in phase III/IV clinical trials for novel breast cancer treatments worldwide. It concludes that patients with ILC and particularly patients belonging to minority subgroups are neglected by clinical investigators and pharmaceutical industries, leading to significant unmet clinical need. Its findings highlight the importance of acknowledging that poor documentation and underrepresentation of ILC and minorities in clinical trials continues to impede personalized treatment of all those diagnosed with ILC.
The idea for the study was conceived during a dinner hosted by the LBCA during the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium at the home of LBCA Board of Directors Member Dr. Deborah Mueller. The conversation turned to the fact that there are still no lobular-specific treatments and the distressing reality that lobular breast cancer is not being sufficiently studied in clinical trials. Soon after, Dr. Van Baelen and Dr. Christine Desmedt conducted this systematic review of the inclusion of ILC in clinical trials to raise awareness of this deficit. The abstract was presented first at the European Society for Medical Oncology Breast Cancer Annual Congress in Berlin, Germany in May 2023 and dedicated to both LBCA Founder and strong proponent of patient and scientist collaboration to advance ILC research, Leigh Pate, and LBCA board of directors member and passionate advocate Deborah Mueller, both of whom passed away before the study’s conclusion.
LBCA patient advocates are happy to have been the instigators of this study and resulting article that will raise more awareness and contribute to the growing and stark evidence that ILC needs more research and clinical trials – now! We laud this new result of scientist and ILC patient advocate collaboration that spotlights the need for more ILC research in clinical studies and moves us closer to eradicating ILC for good.
To read the full article, click here.
