Any chance that they'll include investigators at any other west coast sites?
Like UCLA? UW-Med? OHSU?
Because Stanford is kind of right at our limit as far as driving distance goes... at least for an
"every two weeks" commitment--
it's a full day down and a full day back. (VERY full day drive, I might add) but Portland or even Seattle is much more do-able.
Oh-- what about desensitization for other allergens?
For example, kids that have been tolerating protocols for ramp up of baked milk or egg.
I take it from your above post that they require a positive DBPCFC to be included in the study?
How would that work for multiple allergens? Would they do it in multiple visits? (Because a reaction to one allergen sort of puts the body on a hair-trigger for another for a while, I thought...)
Right now it's just Stanford, but their goal is to do this and get the data out there and (hopefully) get allergist nationwide doing it. They seem absolutely confident that it will work. The doctor has previously done peanut and milk studies and some of those patients have transitioned over to the multi study. My drive is 3+ hours each way (but only because of the traffic) and that seems like a lot so I totally understand you not wanting to do the entire day each way drive every two weeks. It is only every two weeks the first year, I think. I will keep you posted if they do it anywhere further north!
I will ask about the baked egg/milk at my next appointment and will let you know.
Yes, she has to fail a DBPCFC to all three allergens before they start the study. It's actually 4 8-ish hour days at the beginning. They do blood and skin tests the first day plus a food challenge. It's 4 total due to 1 day for the placebo. The first 4 appointments have to be at least one week apart. I'll probably do at least 2 weeks apart because I am very nervous about all three allergens we are thinking about trying - cashew, egg and sesame.
They think the cashew will also desensitize her to pistachios. I thought that would be the case and that is a nice bonus.
DD is really excited about it. I'm trying to make sure she realizes that she is still going to have some food allergies after going through this entire process. I do think that just the fact that this study exists is a huge step in the right direction