Nov 11, 2009 11:54 pm US/Pacific
N. Bay Boy In Experiment To Cure Peanut Allergy
MILL VALLEY (CBS 5) ―
A five-year-old Mill Valley boy is a test case in a medical experiment where doctors are hoping to cure him of his peanut allergies by using the very food that could kill him.
Alex Orum is among the more than three million American children who suffer from food allergies. Now scientists at Duke University Medical Center and Arkansas Children's Hospital may have the first evidence that peanut allergies can be cured.
Less than a year ago, Alex was extremely allergic to peanuts. Now, he's eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich daily as part of a medical trial in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Despite the "I hate peanut butter" face he displays, this breakthrough therapy is likely saving his life. Alex's mother, Caren Orum, said she has spent his entire life watching what he eats. Alex had to take his own food to parties. He's been unable to go to ice cream parlors. Just a trace of peanuts can send Alex into a potentially fatal anaphylactic shock.
Orum said she begged and pleaded to get her son into the first-of-its kind medical trial.
Alex and his mother had to move to Memphis for an entire year to live with relatives in order to get the treatment. The weekly treatment required a two-and-a-half hour drive every two weeks into Little Rock.
Doctors at Arkansas Children's Hospital in conjunction with Duke University are treating Alex and about sixty other children with increasing doses of peanut flour, building up their immunity. Test subjects start with just one one-thousandth of a peanut at first, then increase the amount. Alex is now up to 17 peanuts a day.
Similar breakthroughs have been achieved with allergy shots, but this is the first time food allergies have been tackled in a process called oral immunotherapy.
Doctors are optimistic, but they still must track the children for years to be sure the cure works. Dr. Stacie Jones of Arkansas Children's Hospital, one of the lead researchers and Alex's doctor, said it is too early for anyone to try it at home.
"I think we're still a little ways away, maybe a year or two away before we can be able to implement a protocol that can be used widely across the United States in any practice setting," said Jones.
Jones said there are several similar studies underway involving adults as test subjects, but her trial uses children because it is believed it may have a higher chance of success.
"There's a hypothesis that the immune system of children has more pliability," she said.
All of the children in the study are being closely monitored by a medical team. The Orum family has since reunited in Mill Valley, but Alex still has to fly back to Little Rock with a parent every two weeks.
Only a handful of patients have been declared allergy-free. Alex is still a couple of years away from finding out whether that's his case. Until then, he has to eat peanut butter every day. He is not crazy about it, but his "I hate peanut butter face" seems to be softening with time.
"It's not really good, but it's okay," Alex said.
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