Use of Palifermin for the Prevention of High-Dose Methotrexate-Induced Oral Mucositis.

Oral mucositis is a frequent problem in high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX) based chemotherapy, impairing the patient’s quality of life, leading to higher rates of infections and delaying subsequent chemotherapy. Numerous substances have been used to prevent or treat oral mucositis, but none of them has proven clinical benefit. Palifermin, a recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor, can lead to a prevention of oral mucositis by different effects. Clinical activity of palifermin has been proven in a controlled randomized study with patients undergoing high-dose therapy with autologous stem cell rescue. The purpose of this report is to describe the effect of palifermin in patients treated within the GMALL-B-ALL 2002 protocol containing HD-MTX who developed a severe mucositis in cycles A1 or B1. Ten patients who were treated within this protocol developed a severe WHO grade III–IV oral mucositis in cycles A1 or B1. Before and after the subsequent similar or identical cycles A2 or B2 palifermin was given to reduce the risk of mucositis. Thus, patients serve as their own control for efficacy of palifermin. All ten patients developed a grade III–IV mucositis in cycles A1 or B1 without palifermin, whereas only 2/10 developed a grade III–IV mucositis in corresponding cycles A2 or B2 with palifermin (Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon-test p < 0.05). Five patients were treated with a lower palifermin dose than recommended. Also these patients did not develop a higher grade mucositis. Only 4/10 patients showed infections in the cycles with palifermin compared to 10/10 patients without palifermin. The duration of mucositits in patients who aquired a higher-grade (III, IV) mucositis despite treatment with palifermin could be reduced from 12.9 days (median) without to 10.4 days with palifermin. In conclusion, palifermin can significantly reduce the incidence and severeness of oral mucositis and may influence clinical sequelae such as infection and quality of life.