Uses
When patients with blood cancers (leukemia and lymphoma) receive high dose chemotherapy and radiation therapy to undergo bone marrow transplantation, they usually get severe oral mucositis. Palifermin binds to epithelial cell-surface receptors and stimulates epithelial cell proliferation, differentiation, and upregulation of cytoprotective mechanisms. It reduces the incidence and duration of severe oral mucitis by protecting those cells and stimulating the growth of new epithelial cells to build up the mucosal barrier.
Palifermin is also being studied in the prevention and treatment of oral mucositis and dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) in other types of cancer.
Read more about this topic: Palifermin