, /PRNewswire/ -- What happens when you have cancer, but are allergic to the most effective medication to treat your disease? Approximately 10% of people diagnosed with cancer experience hypersensitivity reactions (HSRs) to certain therapies—which range from a mild skin rash to anaphylaxis (a life-threatening allergic reaction)—even when they were pretreated with antihistamines and steroids. To address this issue, patients with HSRs are often referred for chemotherapy desensitization treatment that requires a series of overnight stays in a hospital intensive care unit (ICU). The NCI-designated offers a better approach: an outpatient cancer therapy desensitization program.
The program—the only one in the area—has completed 200 such procedures, allowing patients to complete optimal treatments within recommended timeframes and avoid the hospital. "When someone is diagnosed with cancer, the last thing they need to learn is that they are allergic to the medication that will best treat their disease," says , M.D.
, director, Montefiore Drug Allergy Center, assistant professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a member of MECCC. "Every patient who has been referred to our program has successfully completed treatment, which is a testament to the close collaboration between allergy, oncology, pharmacy, nursing, and the medical ICU teams. I hope that hitting this milestone demonstrates that outpatient desensitization programs should become the new standard .
