THURSDAY, April 25, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Preschool peanut oral immunotherapy (P-OIT) is safe in a real-world setting, although life-threatening reactions can occur in a minority of patients, according to a study published online April 17 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.

Lianne Soller, Ph.D., from the British Columbia Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues examined whether preschool P-OIT would be beneficial in a real-world setting. In 2017 to 2018, patients had biweekly clinic visits for 16 to 22 weeks for updosing and consumed the dose daily at home between visits. The target maintenance dose was 300 mg of peanut protein.

The researchers found that 243 of the 270 patients who started P-OIT reached maintenance, and 27 dropped out. During build-up, 67.8 percent of patients experienced reactions: 36.3, 31.1, and 0.40 percent were grade 1, 2, and 4, respectively. Overall, 11 patients (4.10 percent) received epinephrine (10 received one dose and one received epinephrine on two days), representing 2.23 and 0.029 percent of reactions and doses, respectively.

“Getting past the controversy of offering P-OIT by analyzing outcomes of real-world data is both healthy for our specialty and a possible means for reducing confusion amongst parents about the role of P-OIT,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

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