10 episodes

Health Newsfeed – Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts Johns Hopkins Medicine

    • Health & Fitness
    • 4.5 • 22 Ratings

    Severe food allergies do not usually occur alone, Elizabeth Tracey reports

    Severe food allergies do not usually occur alone, Elizabeth Tracey reports

    If you have a severe allergy to one food, you probably have the same issues with other foods, as well as allergies to things like pollen that you inhale. That’s according to Robert Wood, principal investigator on a study that demonstrates the efficacy of a drug called omalizumab in managing these multiple allergies and an allergy expert at Johns Hopkins.

    Wood: Virtually all of our patients with food allergy have other forms of allergy and most have allergic rhinitis and asthma. While this drug was only approved for severe asthma it works incredibly well for all levels of asthma so if you have a family where they're on the fence should I start this drug or not to think there's a possibility that they could that one shot that would treat all those things is pretty amazing and truly can treat all of those things.  :25

    Wood says omalizumab binds to an antibody our bodies produce when we are allergic to something called IgE. While our bodies make many unique antibody molecules, all of those of the IgE subclass are bound by omalizumab, which is why it can help control the full range of allergic conditions. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.

    • 1 min
    Are injections to keep food allergies under control a lifelong prospect? Elizabeth Tracey reports

    Are injections to keep food allergies under control a lifelong prospect? Elizabeth Tracey reports

    Food allergies are very often multiple and begin in childhood. Does this mean the newly approved omalizumab, given by injection, must be taken for the rest of someone’s life? Robert Wood, principal investigator on the study used by the FDA to approve the drug and an allergy expert at Johns Hopkins, says maybe.

    Wood: Age doesn’t mean anything specific because for one family the highest risk might be the preschool age years. Another family might be the school age years, I just can't imagine sending her off to kindergarten that's so dangerous. The time that it's clearly most dangerous is college. We do see people who are very successfully avoiding their foods through the school age years and the family is more worried about what's going to happen in high school. Then college is a whole different story when you're letting someone else prepare your food so the age is a big factor.  :30

    Wood notes that just like oral medicines to control allergies, omalizumab’s effects will wear off over time. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.

    • 1 min
    Having allergies to many foods may make using a newly approved drug practical, Elizabeth Tracey reports

    Having allergies to many foods may make using a newly approved drug practical, Elizabeth Tracey reports

    The FDA has just approved a drug called omalizumab used to treat asthma to treat multiple, severe food allergy. Robert Wood, an allergy expert at Johns Hopkins and principal investigator on the study that demonstrated the drug’s efficacy, says the scope of approval is fairly broad.

     Wood: So approved from age one through adulthood. There are a number of factors that may make one family more or less interested in doing this. The first of those is truly having multiple severe food allergies. Within that is actually being allergic to things that are really a lot harder to avoid them peanuts. Peanut avoidance is relatively straightforward, people understand peanut allergy, whereas things like milk and egg and wheat are far harder to avoid so families who are dealing with those allergies can be far more severe than the worst peanut allergy.  :30

    The drug requires injection every two to four weeks indefinitely to keep food allergies at bay. Wood says because some people may have an allergic reaction to the injection the first few must be done in a medical facility, but then may be done at home. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.

    • 1 min
    Can food allergies be overcome by feeding foods people are allergic to? Elizabeth Tracey reports

    Can food allergies be overcome by feeding foods people are allergic to? Elizabeth Tracey reports

    A drug called omalizumab has just been approved to treat severe food allergies. Robert Wood, Johns Hopkins allergy expert and principal investigator on a study proving the efficacy of this drug, says it’s needed because the strategy of feeding increasing amounts of foods people are allergic to often doesn’t work.

    Wood: There are lots of allergen specific treatments that are under investigation. One is FDA approved but that's for the whole world of food allergy there's only one approved product, and that's specific for peanut allergy. And the reality is that we see very few patients that only have one allergy. There's a few reasons why the uptake of this treatment for peanut allergy has been very slow. One of the major ones is that if you're allergic to seven different things treating one of them may not be that valuable.  :28

    Wood says omalizumab is helpful for the majority of people with severe, multiple allergies to foods as well as inhaled allergens. He notes that while the drug has been around for some time there is no generic version and it is not easy to manufacture.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.

    • 1 min
    A newly approved drug to treat food allergy may be a game changer, Elizabeth Tracey reports

    A newly approved drug to treat food allergy may be a game changer, Elizabeth Tracey reports

    Omalizumab is the chemical name for Xolair, an asthma medication that’s been around for decades that has just gotten FDA approval to treat food allergy. Robert Wood, an allergy expert at Johns Hopkins and one author of a recent study demonstrating the benefit of the drug for managing food allergies, is pleased about the outcome.

    Wood: It really took the kind of phase three study that the FDA was going to be looking for to have any hope that it might actually be an approved product for patients for food allergy. The mechanism of this drug is very straightforward. The reason people develop allergy, whether it be an environmental allergy driving your asthma or a food allergy is because their immune system has produced these antibodies called IgE. This is called anti IgE so it literally is blocking the antibodies in the patient for whatever they're allergic to.  :32

    Wood believes most insurance will eventually cover the medicine. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.

    • 1 min
    Should cancers be named according to which mutations they carry? Elizabeth Tracey reports

    Should cancers be named according to which mutations they carry? Elizabeth Tracey reports

    Myc, ras, BRCA…these are all shorthand for common cancer mutations, with a new study saying that’s how cancers should be identified rather than which organ or system they’re found in, since not knowing the mutations may delay proper treatment. Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson at Johns Hopkins disagrees.

    Nelson: I’m not sure it's the delay that he thinks it is. The biggest objection I have to it is that the whole reason you figure out where a cancer is is because you're going to be looking for it by some kind of screening and early detection move, and it matters where it is if you're going to remove it and not need any of these medicines. That logic that we're not going to call something breast cancer anymore is crazy because what will we be screening for then we're not going to be screening for BRCAomas, we're going to be screening for breast cancers because then we can remove them keeping the breast intact and having minimal other treatments.  :31

    Nelson predicts that characterizing cancers will involve both anatomy and genetics, as well as other factors. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.

    • 1 min

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22 Ratings

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