JOIN USSuccess in new peanut allergy trials
Following on from a small clinical trial conducted in 2009, the allergy team carried out a larger trial involving 22 children, a university release said. Before beginning the treatment, the children involved in the study reacted to tiny amounts of peanut.
After treatment, 19 of 22 children were able to eat five peanuts a day; two had partial success - eating two to three peanuts a day; and one dropped out of the study at the start.
"This is the first time that a peanut allergy study has shown such a high level of success and proves that it is possible for peanut allergic patients to eat peanuts without fear of a severe reaction," says Dr Andrew Clark, who led the clinical trial.
"The children and teenagers attended the hospital's clinical research facility to undergo the desensitisation treatment, which still proved effective six months on. Peanut allergy is common, affecting between one and two per cent of young children, and can cause severe or even fatal reactions.
There is currently no satisfactory treatment. The diagnosis has a major impact on families, because of the fear of a severe reaction and anxiety in making food choices.
"The lives of the families involved in this trial have been transformed," said Dr Clark.
"The amount of peanut that could be tolerated by the children and teenagers on this trial increased 1000-fold.
"Studies of peanut immunotherapy from other centres, using different regimes have been less successful. The Cambridge regime involves more gradual increases in dose but eventually a much higher dose of peanut is tolerated.
"This treatment could drastically improve the lives of those currently suffering with severe peanut allergies," said Dr Maher Khaled of Cambridge Enterprise, the University's commercialisation group.
"We are currently looking to make this groundbreaking treatment more widely available."
"The findings are published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy."