Axitinib for the treatment of patients with advanced metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) after failure of prior systemic treatment

The landscape of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) treatment has changed dramatically during recent years. Bevacizumab/interferon, sunitinib, sorafenib, temsirolimus, everolimus, and pazopanib have been proven effective in metastatic RCC. Axitinib is a novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor, which inhibits the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) at subnanomolar level. Based on this extraordinary VEGFR inhibition, axitinib is considered a next generation agent. The recent AXIS trial reported on axitinib's efficacy in second line treatment of RCC, which led to its recent approval in the USA. This review focuses on the clinical efficacy of axitinib in RCC patients.