New Drug Shows Promise in Easing Mouth Sores

As those who have been through transplant know, mouth and throat sores caused by high-dose chemotherapy and/or radiation can be very painful. The sores make it difficult to eat and increase patients’ risk of infection.

Incidence of Severe Oral Mucositis in Patients Given Kepivance® (palifermin) vs. Placebo Kepivance®  (palifermin) significantly reduced the incidence of severe grades of oral mucositis.

A new drug, palifermin, is now available to control severe mouth sores. In a Phase III clinical trial, patients were randomized to receive palifermin or a placebo (no drug). The incidence of severe mouth sores (World Health Organization Grades 3 and 4) was 63% in the group who received palifermin compared with 98% in the group who did not (see chart). The number of days patients had severe mouth sores was 67% less in the palifermin group.

Patients in the palifermin group required less pain medication than the non-palifermin group. Palifermin also reduced the need for intravenous or tube feeding.

“Palifermin also shortened hospital stays by two days in the autologous transplant study. Very early experience with patients undergoing a cord blood transplant at our center, suggests that palifermin has also shown a beneficial effect,” says Patrick Stiff MD, Loyola University Medical Center.

The Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research will be monitoring the progress of patients who receive palifermin to determine if there are any long-term side effects.

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