Have
you been following all of the of news coverage on immunotherapy research lately?
Like most things related to food allergies, there seem to be some opposing
views on this potential new treatment.
In
case you missed it, The New York Times, Today Show, and Katie Couric recently featured a new
approach for children with serious allergies to several different foods. The
clinical trial, led by Dr. Kari Nadeau at Stanford, involves desensitizing
patients to up to five different allergens by very slowly increasing their
intake over time. Several
children with severely allergic food allergies are experiencing great results
and seem overjoyed with the success of the research.
On
the flip side, other doctors such as Wayne Shreffler M.D. of Harvard Medical
School have posted cautionary commentary on the risks of this type of study,
citing that more research is needed to disprove this treatment will actually do
more harm than good in the long run.
Supporting
this concern is a report recently shared at the AAAAI annual conference highlighting
another immunotherapy study with very different outcomes. The March issue of
Allergic Living magazine summarizes disappointing findings of researchers investigating oral immunotherapy in milk-allergic
patients. Results showed that for a majority of patients, desensitization
wasn’t holding up. In fact, three to five years after completing an OIT study,
Johns Hopkins University researchers said that many participants were more
reactive to cow’s milk than they had been early in the course of treatment.
So
what’s a food allergy parent to think? I’m personally thrilled research is
being done on this topic. I’m even more thrilled it is helping some of the
families willing to sacrifice their time and safety to partake in the study. (The
New York Times article mentions some risky scenarios where epinephrine was
needed. Yikes.)
Given
that risk factor, - for me - I can’t say this is a treatment I would feel
comfortable with for my child. I personally took immunotherapy shots for my
seasonal allergies for years with absolutely no positive results. Then again,
many other patients did. It’s hard to look at the smiles of 10-year-old Tessa Grosso after
her recent treatment and argue that it hasn’t changed her life for the better ….
immensely better.
So
there you have it. Medical research is just another example of how food
allergies continue to be a personal journey that is different for every
individual. Even so, I believe our
common and collective goal will help us find the answer in my 9 year-old
daughter’s lifetime. Until then, my heartfelt gratitude goes out to the many
researchers and families who are working hard every day to help find a cure!
(See
my earlier blog post on FAFH-2...another food allergy research study I learned
about a few years ago that I hope is still progressing!)
