WASHINGTON - Having a bad reaction to penicillin as a child doesn't guarantee you're still allergic decades later. And if the oncologist says you have to switch chemotherapies because of an allergic reaction, well, maybe not.
More medical centers are recommending a lesser known choice: Drug desensitization, a carefully controlled method of helping patients temporarily tolerate medications — from aspirin to antibiotics to chemo — that their bodies once rejected.
Not everyone's a candidate. But for those who are, the process can mean the difference between getting the best treatment or a runner-up that may not do the job, says Dr. Mariana Castells, an allergist at Harvard and Brigham and Women's Hospital who helped pioneer the care.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36430476/ns/health-allergies_and_asthma/