Oral immunotherapy may not be the answer for peanut allergy

A group of allergy experts reviewing whether oral immunotherapy is a viable treatment for people with peanut allergy have questioned whether accidental ingestion of peanuts resulting in an allergic reaction is more or less likely than the person being able to tolerate oral immunotherapy.

While many researchers and allergy sufferers have been holding out hope that this novel therapy may eventually become an option to offer individuals with food allergy, a review of recent peanut oral immunotherapy trials suggests that if such a treatment is viable, it is still a long way off.

One recent trial cited in the review had 18 per cent of subjects drop out due to secondary side effects from the therapy, and 17 of the 22 trial participants could not achieve tolerance to a dose equivalent to one peanut.

The review authors conclude that further studies are needed to address a number of outstanding issues to determine whether this type of therapy is appropriate for clinical use.

Reference: Thyagarajan, et al. 2010. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Vol. 126 pp. 31-2 DOI:10.1016/j.jaci.2010.05.012