Specific immunotherapy and atopic dermatitis. What is new?

Although allergen-specific immunotherapy, which celebrates its 100-year anniversary this year, represents the only potentially corrective or curative therapy available in the field of allergy, this therapeutic option is rarely employed in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), one of the most common chronic inflammatory skin diseases. The reason is the relatively low number of controlled studies and a high number of uncontrolled studies or case reports with quite heterogenous study designs focusing on the value of SIT in AD in the literature. However, since allergens clearly impact on the initiation and impairment of AD as well as flare-up of eczematous skin lesions in a subgroup of patients, selected patients might benefit from SIT as an additional therapeutic option. In this overview, we summarize the current data and provide a state-of-the-art view on the value of SIT in AD.