Toward responsible clinical n-of-1 strategies for rare diseases.

Abstract

N-of-1 strategies can provide high-quality evidence of treatment efficacy at the individual level and optimize evidence-based selection of off-label treatments for patients with rare diseases. Given their design characteristics, n-of-1 strategies are considered to sit at the intersection between medical research and clinical care. Therefore, whether n-of-1 strategies should be governed by research or care regulations remains a debated issue. Here, we delineate differences between medical research and optimized clinical care, and distinguish the regulations which apply to either. We also set standards for responsible optimized clinical n-of-1 strategies with (off-label) treatments for rare diseases. Implementing clinical n-of-1 strategies as defined here could aid in optimized treatment selection for such diseases. Teaser: N-of-1 strategies are considered a hybrid between research and care; therefore, which regulations n-of-1 strategies must abide by remains a topic of debate. We set the standards for responsible n-of-1 approaches as optimized care.