Oral Immunotherapy (OIT)

Currently, there is no approved therapy for food allergies. Thus, treatment strategies are limited to avoidance of the allergic food and having emergency treatment available for reactions. An increasing amount of research into food allergy treatments has occurred in response to this void, with oral immunotherapy (OIT) being the most researched treatment strategy to date. From the multiple studies examining OIT for IgE-mediated food allergies, it appears that this treatment can lead to desensitization in the majority of patients who tolerate the therapy. Adverse effects to OIT are common and sometimes severe. Therefore, combination with other therapeutic approaches may be needed to improve the safety of OIT for many patients.