Kepivance Side Effects

Generic Name: palifermin

Please note - some side effects for Kepivance may not be reported. Always consult your doctor or healthcare specialist for medical advice. You may also report side effects to the FDA at http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/ or 1-800-FDA-1088 (1-800-332-1088).

Side Effects of Kepivance - for the Consumer

Kepivance

All medicines may cause side effects, but many people have no, or minor, side effects. Check with your doctor if any of these most COMMON side effects persist or become bothersome when using Kepivance:

Change in taste; joint pain; skin reactions (rash, irritation, redness, swelling, itching); tingling, numbness, prickling, or burning sensation around the mouth or on the skin; tongue thickening or discoloration.

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue).

Kepivance Side Effects - for the Professional

Kepivance

Please refer to the PRECAUTIONS: Potential for Stimulation of Tumor Growth and CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY: Mechanism of Action sections regarding the potential for tumor stimulatory effects in KGF receptor-expressing tumors.

Clinical Trial Experience

Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice. The adverse reaction information from clinical trials does, however, provide a basis for identifying the adverse events that appear to be related to drug use and for approximating rates.

Safety data are based upon 409 patients with hematologic malignancies (NHL, Hodgkin's disease, AML, ALL, CML, CLL, or multiple myeloma) who received Kepivance and 241 patients who received placebo in 3 randomized, placebo-controlled clinical studies and a pharmacokinetic study. Patients received Kepivance either before, or before and after, regimens of myelotoxic chemotherapy, with or without TBI, followed by PBPC support. The patients were predominantly between the ages of 41 and 60 years (median 48 yrs), male (62%), white (83%). NHL was the most common malignancy followed by Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, and leukemia.

The most common serious adverse reaction attributed to Kepivance was skin rash, which was reported in less than 1% (3/409) of patients treated with Kepivance. Grade 3 skin rashes occurred in 14 patients, 9 of 409 (3%) receiving Kepivance and 5 of 241 (2%) receiving placebo. In seven patients (5 Kepivance, 2 placebo), study drug was discontinued due to skin rash. Other serious adverse reactions occurred at a similar rate in patients who received Kepivance (20%) or placebo (21%). The most frequently reported serious adverse events in Kepivance and placebo-treated patients were fever, gastrointestinal events, and respiratory events.

The most common adverse reactions attributed to Kepivance were skin toxicities (rash, erythema, edema, pruritus), oral toxicities (dysesthesia, tongue discoloration, tongue thickening, alteration of taste), pain arthralgias, and dysesthesia. The median time to onset of cutaneous toxicity was 6 days following the first of 3 consecutive daily doses of Kepivance, with a median duration of 5 days. In patients receiving Kepivance, dysesthesia (including hyperesthesia, hypoesthesia, and paresthesia) was usually localized to the perioral region, whereas in patients receiving placebo dysesthesias were more likely to occur in extremities. Adverse events occurring more frequently in Kepivance-treated patients as compared to placebo-treated patients (a higher incidence of ≥ 5%) are listed in Table 2.

Hypertension: In a phase 1 placebo-controlled study in patients undergoing hematopoietic transplantation and receiving Kepivance (3 doses pre-myelotoxic therapy and 3 doses post-transplant), the proportion of Kepivance-treated patients reporting an adverse event of hypertension in the 60- and 80-mcg/kg/day Kepivance cohorts was greater than in the placebo group (2/15 patients [13%], 2/14 [14%], and 2/23 [9%], respectively). These events were transient and did not require treatment discontinuation in any patient. In an integrated analysis of adverse events across Kepivance studies in the hematology transplant setting, hypertensive events were reported in 30/409 Kepivance (7%) patients and 13/241 placebo (5%) patients.

Proteinuria: In a placebo-controlled study conducted in 145 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer receiving multi-cycle chemotherapy (5-FU/leucovorin), serial urine specimens were collected for 27 placebo-treated and 54 Kepivance-treated patients. Among the 54 Kepivance-treated patients, 9 patients with a baseline urinalysis negative for protein subsequently developed 2+ or greater proteinuria after treatment with Kepivance. Among the 27 placebo-treated patients evaluated, none developed 2+ or greater proteinuria. Because of the study design, the number of cycles with urine analysis data collected was higher in the Kepivance- treated patients. In addition, for the 9 patients with proteinuria, underlying medical conditions known to be associated with proteinuria were present at baseline. A causal relationship between Kepivance and proteinuria has not been established.

Laboratory Values: Reversible elevations in serum lipase and amylase, which did not require treatment intervention, are shown in Table 2. In general, peak increases were observed during the period of cytotoxic therapy and returned to baseline by the day of PBPC infusion. Fractionation of amylase revealed it to be predominantly salivary in origin.

Immunogenicity

As with all therapeutic proteins, there is a potential for immunogenicity. The clinical significance of antibodies to Kepivance is unknown but may include lessened activity and/or cross reactivity with other members of the FGF family of growth factors.

A sensitive electrochemiluminescence-based binding assay was performed on post-treatment sera from 645 patients treated with Kepivance in clinical studies. Twelve (2%) of these 645 patients tested positive for antibodies to Kepivance following treatment. None of the samples had evidence of neutralizing activity in a cell-based assay.

The incidence of antibody positivity is highly dependent on the specific assay and its sensitivity. Additionally, the observed incidence of antibody positivity in an assay may be influenced by several factors including sample handling, timing of sample collection, concomitant medications and underlying disease. For these reasons, comparison of the incidence of antibodies to Kepivance with the incidence of antibodies to other products may be misleading.

Postmarketing Experience

The following adverse reactions have been identified during postapproval of Kepivance. Because these reactions are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to drug exposure.

The following adverse reactions have been identified during postmarketing use of Kepivance in the stem cell transplant setting: tongue disorder (e.g. redness, bumps, edema); face edema and mouth edema; vaginal edema and erythema; transient hyperpigmentation of the skin; Palmar-plantar Erythrodysaesthesia Syndrome (dysaesthesia, erythema, edema on the palms and soles) and anaphylactic / allergic reactions.

Side Effects by Body System

Dermatologic

Dermatologic side effects for palifermin in relation to placebo therapy have included rash (62% vs. 50%), pruritus (35% vs. 24%), and erythema (32% vs. 22%).

Skin rash was the most common serious side effect reported.

Clinical studies (n=409) reported the occurrence of grade 3 skin rash in 14 patients (9 palifermin, 5 placebo) resulting in the discontinuation of treatment in 7 patients (5 palifermin, 2 placebo).

Following the first 3 consecutive days of administration, the median time to cutaneous side effects is 6 days with a median duration of 5 days.

Other

Following the first 3 consecutive days of administration, the median time to cutaneous side effects, including edema, is 6 days with a median duration of 5 days.

Other side effects for palifermin in relation to placebo therapy have included edema (28% vs. 21%), pain (16% vs. 11%), fever (39% vs. 34%) and perianal pain (12% vs. 5%). Other side effects of palifermin following a single 90 mcg/kg IV dose include fatigue (26%) and headache (23%).

Gastrointestinal

Gastrointestinal side effects for palifermin in relation to placebo therapy have included mouth/tongue thickness and/or discoloration (17% vs. 8%) and altered taste (16% vs. 8%). Oral/perioral dysesthesia and white film coating of the mouth or tongue has also been reported.

Musculoskeletal

Musculoskeletal side effects for palifermin in relation to placebo therapy have included arthralgia (10% vs 5%).

Nervous system

Dysthesias in palifermin treated patients have generally been reported as localized to the perioral region. In contrast, patients receiving placebo have generally reported dysthesias in extremities.

Nervous system side effects for palifermin in relation to placebo therapy have included dysthesias (12% vs. 7%). Types of dysthesias reported have included hyperesthesia, hypoesthesia, and paresthesia.

Oncologic

There are no available data on the effects of palifermin on stimulation of KGF receptor- expressing, non- hematopoietic tumors in patients.

At concentrations greater than 15 times the average therapeutic human concentration palifermin has been reported to enhance the growth of human epithelial tumor cell lines in vitro.

In nude mouse xenograft models, doses 25 and 67 times higher than the recommended human dose administered daily for 3 consecutive weeks and repeated weekly for 4 to 6 weeks may have resulted in a dose-dependent increase in the growth rate of 1 of 7 KGF receptor- expressing human tumor cell lines.

Oncologic side effects have included enhancement in the growth of human epithelial tumor cell lines in vitro and an increase in the rate of tumor cell line growth in a human carcinoma xenograft model.

Metabolic

Metabolic side effects for palifermin in relation to placebo therapy have included elevated serum lipase grade 3 (28% vs. 23%), elevated serum lipase grade 4 (11% vs. 5%), elevated serum amylase grade 3 (62% vs. 54%), and elevated serum amylase grade 4 (38% vs. 31%).

In clinical studies, the elevated serum lipase and amylase levels were reversible with peak increases recorded during the period of cytotoxic therapy. Levels returned to baseline by the day of PBPC infusion. There are no reports of required treatment intervention.

The increased amount of amylase is reported to be predominantly salivary in origin.

Cardiovascular

Hypertension was reported with doses of 60 mcg/kg and 80 mcg/kg in patients undergoing hematopoietic transplantation. This effect appeared to be transient. There are no reports of treatment discontinuation due to hypertension.

Cardiovascular side effects have included hypertension.

Genitourinary

There have been reports of 2+ or greater proteinuria in patients treated with palifermin; however, a causal relationship between palifermin and proteinuria has not been established.

Genitourinary side effects have included proteinuria.

General

In general, doses of 80 mcg/kg administered intravenously 3 doses prior to and 3 doses after myeloablative chemotherapy/TBI produced the same type of side effects seen with 60 mcg/kg doses; however, a higher level of severity was reported with the higher dose.

Respiratory

Respiratory side effects for palifermin in relation to placebo therapy have included cough (34% vs. 28%) and rhinitis (17% vs. 9%).

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