Pazopanib
Votrient · VEGFR TKI
VEGFR-TKI; hypertension, proteinuria, TMA.
Inlyta · Axi
VEGFR TKI · approved 2012 · 7 citations · FAERS AKI reporting ROR 1.41 (95% CI 1.23–1.63, 198 AKI reports)
Describes how this page is sourced, not how dangerous the drug is. Thinly sourced means fewer of the sourcing signals are met — not that the agent is kidney-safe. A rule-based summary, not a formal certainty appraisal.
A potent, selective second-generation VEGFR inhibitor whose renal signature is dose-related hypertension and proteinuria, with thrombotic microangiopathy at the severe end of the spectrum.
Signature lesion
Hypertension is the dominant and best-quantified renal-relevant signal. In the randomized phase III AXIS trial, treatment-emergent all-causality hypertension occurred in 40.4% of axitinib-treated patients (vs 29.0% with sorafenib), with grade 3 hypertension in 15.3% and grade 4 in 0.3%. A real-world VEGFR-TKI cohort in metastatic RCC similarly found hypertension to be the single most common anti-angiogenesis-related adverse event (about 48.6% in TKI-naive patients across the class). Proteinuria is the next most common renal effect; across the VEGF-inhibitor class mild/asymptomatic proteinuria is reported in roughly 21% to 63% of patients, with heavy (nephrotic-range) proteinuria in up to about 6.5% of RCC patients, and axitinib-specific proteinuria rates have been higher in some populations (e.g., Japanese cohorts). Thrombotic microangiopathy and other glomerular lesions (FSGS-like injury, podocytopathy, hyaline occlusive glomerular microangiopathy) are reported at the severe, biopsy-level end of the spectrum but are not precisely quantified for axitinib specifically.Source: Rini, Target Oncol 2014 (AXIS hypertension analysis)
Hypertension early (days to the first few weeks); proteinuria over weeks; severe glomerular lesions later and more variable.
Distilled from: “Hypertension typically emerges early, frequently within days to the first few weeks of starting therapy. Proteinuria tends to develop over weeks of continued exposure and is dose-related. Severe glomerular lesions (TMA, nephrotic syndrome) are usually later and more variable in timing.”
Long-term outcome and threshold data distilled from the agent's cited literature — educational, not a substitute for the primary sources.
This agent's kidney lesions ordered by prominence — the #1 signature lesion first, then secondary and rare patterns. Cited incidence is shown where a citable figure exists; otherwise the tier stands qualitatively.
On-target VEGFR effect; axitinib safety meta-analysis reported high-grade (grade >=3) hypertension in ~24.9% (all-grade rates ~40%), the most common adverse event
VEGF-signaling inhibition (nephrin suppression/podocyte injury) causes proteinuria in ~21-63% overall, with heavy/nephrotic-range proteinuria up to ~6.5% in RCC patients PMID 20006922 (opens PubMed in a new tab)
Glomerular thrombotic microangiopathy is the main VEGF-inhibition-associated kidney lesion but occurs at case-level frequency; no reliable axitinib-specific incidence PMID 20006922 (opens PubMed in a new tab)
Tap a signature to trace where it strikes the nephron.
Hypertension
Raised blood pressure — archetypally on-target loss of endothelial nitric oxide from VEGF-pathway blockade, studied as a pharmacodynamic marker of drug exposure. Other agents raise it too: vascular effects of BCR-ABL, BTK and RET inhibitors and of copanlisib; abiraterone's mineralocorticoid excess; androgen suppression or blockade.
§ Receptor target map
VEGFR2 is the target with documented renal consequences across every VEGFR TKI; multi-kinase breadth beyond it (PDGFR-β, FGFR, and off-target receptor kinases) adds further renal and hypertensive liability. Select a lit receptor for its renal consequence.
VEGFR2 · renal target
Glomerular endothelial VEGFR2: loss of podocyte-derived paracrine VEGF signaling → fenestrae loss, nephrin downregulation, nitric-oxide depletion → hypertension, proteinuria, and thrombotic microangiopathy.
Axitinib is an oral, potent, selective second-generation small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that blocks vascular endothelial growth factor receptors VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, and VEGFR-3 at subnanomolar concentrations. By interrupting VEGF-driven angiogenic signaling, it starves the tumor of neovascularization. Its high selectivity for the VEGFR family (relative to first-generation multi-kinase inhibitors) underlies both its antitumor potency and a renal/vascular toxicity profile dominated by on-target VEGF-pathway effects.
Class-level context for the major non-renal toxicities of the VEGFR TKI class.
Vascular
Hypertension, VTE/ATE, bleeding, aneurysm
Cardiac
Cardiomyopathy, QT, ischemia, myocarditis
Gastrointestinal
Diarrhea, colitis, mucositis, perforation
Dermatologic
Rash, HFS, SJS/TEN, vitiligo
7 primary references — trials, cohorts, mechanism, and reviews. Citation metadata via PubMed / NLM.
Primary (non–case-report) references per year — a proxy for how actively the agent's renal literature is accruing. Recent years are highlighted. Reflects curation depth, not a systematic bibliometric count.
Quoted verbatim from this agent's current FDA label (Mar 2026) — not paraphrased or interpreted. Full label on DailyMed .
Renal impairment — from the label
No dedicated renal impairment trial for axitinib has been conducted. Based on the population pharmacokinetic analyses, no significant difference in axitinib clearance was observed in patients with pre-existing mild to severe renal impairment (15 mL/min ≤creatinine clearance [CLcr] <89 mL/min) [see Clinical Pharmacology (12.3) ] . No starting dose adjustment is needed for patients with pre-existing mild to severe renal impairment. Caution should be used in patients with end-stage renal disease (CLcr <15 mL/min).
Everything below is FAERS — adverse events someone chose to report, about 19,365 of them for this agent. Nobody counts the patients who were fine, so none of these numbers is an incidence, a risk, or a rate: they describe what gets reported, shaped by a drug's fame, its indication, and who was watching. How these numbers work.
Only significant signals appear (95% CI lower bound above 1) — a phenotype missing here was tested and did not reach significance, except Prerenal / Hemodynamic AKI, Pseudo-AKI, Renal Cysts, Chronic Interstitial Nephropathy — outside the clinician-reviewed MedDRA term map, never queried — and ATN and AIN, queried but biopsy-bound: real cases are filed as generic “acute kidney injury”, so their absence is not a negative. As of 2026-10-01.
What reporting says about this profile's documented lesions
Reported with a death outcome
3,907 of 19,365 reports
Reported with hospitalization
4,995 of 19,365 reports
Reports per year
Yearly FAERS report volume · most recent year is partial.
Bars rank systems by summed reaction-term mentions (a report counts once per term it names) — an ordinal “more vs less reported” cue, not a tally of distinct reports. Renal & urinary first. As of 2026-10-01.
Each recommendation below is this atlas's faithful summary of the source, not a quotation from it — follow the PubMed link for the wording the society published. Summaries may be superseded; consult the current full text and individualize to the patient.
General onco-nephrology references
Where Axitinib sits in nephrotoxicity space — each dot is an anti-cancer agent, positioned so neighbors share a kidney-injury phenotype. Its 6 closest are filled and lead to a numbered marker, matching the numbered cards below.
Votrient · VEGFR TKI
VEGFR-TKI; hypertension, proteinuria, TMA.
Zaltrap · VEGF trap
Hypertension and proteinuria like bevacizumab.
Avastin · Anti-VEGF antibody
Proteinuria, hypertension, glomerular TMA.
Cyramza · Anti-VEGFR2 antibody
Hypertension and proteinuria, class effect.
VEGFR TKI
Hypertension as an on-target marker; proteinuria.
Ofev · VEGFR/FGFR/PDGFR TKI
Proteinuria and rare TMA.
Nearest agents by kidney-injury phenotype (shared injuries, nephron target, severity, class) — a similarity approximation, not a claim of shared drug identity or mechanism.
Same-class agents ordered by their documented kidney-injury profile — atlas severity, an acute-kidney-injury FAERS signal, and how many injury types each is documented to cause. Agents nearer the top carry the lighter documented renal profile.
A comparison of documented kidney-injury data within one drug class — not a substitution recommendation. Efficacy, indication, and non-renal toxicity differ between these agents and are out of scope here. Educational only, not medical advice.
The leading contributors to Axitinib’s clinical kidney literature on PubMed, ranked by a blend of publication volume and citation impact — filtered toward clinical work via the PubMed Humans heading and clinical publication types (trials, cohorts, case reports, guidelines, reviews). Names link to that author’s work on Axitinib; the PMIDs beside each name are up to three of their most recent papers on it, not the full count.
Ranked by a 50/50 blend of publication volume and a position-weighted, capped Relative Citation Ratio (NIH iCite) on this agent’s renal literature; the citation count shown is the raw total, not the ranking score — counted over the 47 clinical records among all 57 PubMed matches, so counts are within-sample — bibliometric context, not an endorsement or a measure of clinical authority.