- Desensitization is a method used to help a person with an allergy tolerate exposure to a specific allergic agent. Desensitization to a medication such as oxaliplatin involves giving the medication in slowly increasing amounts, starting with tiny doses, and ending with the full dose prescribed by the physician. Patients participating in this part of the study will have the desensitization at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU or MICU) to ensure close supervision. Desensitization to oxaliplatin involves a multi-step procedure where the oxaliplatin dose is started at very small doses and the rate of infusion is increased every 15 minutes until the "target rate" is achieved. This rate is then maintained until the full dose of medication has been infused. This usually takes approximately 6 hours if no adverse reactions are experienced.