Epicutaneous immunotherapy

Abstract

Allergen immunotherapy is considered to be the only treatment that has the potential to improve the natural history of allergic diseases. Currently, as the routes of allergen administration, subcutaneous, oral, sublingual, and epicutaneous administration have been used. In food allergy, oral immunotherapy is widely conducted. However, because of the uncertainty for acquiring tolerance and the high risk of inducing adverse events such as anaphylaxis, it has not yet been approved as a general treatment. On the other hand, although there are several problems including efficacy, side effects, appropriate amounts of allergen, and its application, be solved in epicutaneous immunotherapy, it has been recently accepted as a relatively safe method. In this review, I will show the recent information for epicutaneous immunotherapy as well as our own results.