Allergy Notes: "Exciting advance in peanut allergy therapy - oral immunotherapy successful in another study"

From CNN:

"Researchers took a group of 23 children allergic to peanuts and gave them small amounts of peanuts to eat daily, usually starting with 1 mg. The peanut quantity was increased carefully every two weeks, until the children could eat about five peanuts.

They took this dose daily for at least six weeks, mostly tolerating it well except for some temporary mouth itching or abdominal pain, he said. The results showed that 21 of the 23 children, or 91 percent, can safely eat at least five peanuts every day without any reaction.

"I'm confident that within the next three to five years will we have a treatment that we can offer to our patients, which is not necessarily a cure," Nowak-Wegrzyn told CNN.

The immunotherapy method, which Nowak-Wegrzyn called a "big advancement in the field," has also shown promise in a study by Duke University Medical Center and Arkansas Children's Hospital. Results presented in March 2009 showed that four of nine children allergic to peanuts could be taken off the therapy and eat peanuts freely after 2½ years of the therapy.

But there are many unknowns about this treatment, and it's not clear how permanent the state of desensitization is, she said, and this immunotherapy method is not a cure."