How effective is axitinib/axitinib?

Axitinib/Axitinib is a new oral multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor, mainly used for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. Its mechanism of action is by inhibiting vascular endothelial growth factor receptors 1, 2, and 3, thereby preventing tumor angiogenesis and growth. Axitinib has shown encouraging efficacy in the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Axitinib was compared with sorafenib in a major study involving723 patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. The participants were all treated after failure of other cancer drugs, such as sunitinib or cytokines. The study's main criterion was how long patients survived without their tumors getting worse. The results showed that the average progression-free survival of patients taking axitinib was 6.7 months, compared with 4.7 months in the sorafenib group. This result shows that axitinib is significantly better than sorafenib in the treatment of advanced renal cancer, especially in patients who have previously received cytokine therapy instead of sunitinib.

In phase III clinical trials in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinomaAxitinib also showed a high objective response rate and significantly prolonged progression-free survival. This makes axitinib the first drug to demonstrate the effectiveness of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor in second-line treatment in a phase III prospective randomized trial. The discovery provides new treatment options for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, especially if they have not responded well to other treatments.

Although axitinib is generally well tolerated, its unique pattern of adverse events needs to be noted. The most common adverse reactions include diarrhea, hypertension, fatigue, nausea and vomiting. Although the incidence of grade 3 or 4 toxicity is low, the medical team still needs to closely monitor the patient's health status to manage and adjust the treatment plan in a timely manner.

Reference materials:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23357974/