LEAP Reveal Roundup

February 26, 2015

George Du Toit (Kings College London), Eduard Chani (ITN), Joy Laurienzo (NIAID), Gideon Lack (Kings College London), Audrey Plough (ITN), Don Whitehouse (ITN), Kristina Harris (ITN)

As all are well aware, the groundbreaking results of the Learning Early About Peanut (LEAP) study were published on Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and presented during a plenary session at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI) by Professor Gideon Lack, the LEAP Protocol Chair. Since the release, major news sources have reported on the study’s results (including the Washington Post, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and CNN, to name just a few), and Professor Lack was featured on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR.

TrialShare was highlighted by both Professor Lack during his plenary talk, and Dr. Jeff Drazen, the editor-in-chief of NEJM, during the press conference that followed. Both promoted TrialShare as a resource for the community to access the data and figures from the manuscript. Dr. Lack also mentioned TrialShare on the Diane Rehm Show and encouraged others to explore the data for themselves (see minute 21 of the radio program).

The LEAP study website saw a bump in activity, with 1,151 visitors on Monday (compared to 40-50 visitors on a normal day), and another 877 on Tuesday.

Given the significance of the study’s results, the community is interested in how physicians and parents should approach prevention of peanut allergy in young children, and the current guidelines concerning peanut allergy will need to be re-thought. In an NEJM editorial that accompanied the LEAP manuscript, Dr. Hugh Sampson (Mount Sinai School of Medicine) and Dr. Rebecca Gruchalla (UT Southwestern Medical Center) write that “Although other studies are urgently needed to address the many questions that remain, especially with respect to other foods, the LEAP study makes it clear that we can do something now to reverse the increasing prevalence of peanut allergy.”

Jeff Drazen, editor-in-chief of the NEJM, at the podium

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