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MEK inhibitor

Mirdametinib

Gomekli · MIRD

MEK inhibitor · approved 2025 · 4 references

A MEK inhibitor for NF1 plexiform neurofibromas whose renal footprint is edema and modest creatinine shifts.

Signature injury
Prerenal / Hemodynamic AKI
Severity
Mild
Reversibility
Reversible
Onset
Not well defined; edema and any creatinine changes evolve during ongoing therapy.

Signature kidney injury & incidence

Prerenal / Hemodynamic AKI.

No established intrinsic nephrotoxicity. Across MEK-inhibitor experience (including the NF106 mirdametinib trial) the characteristic toxicities are rash, edema, diarrhea and CK elevation; renal events are not a defining signal and any creatinine change is qualitative rather than a quantified AKI rate.

Source: Weiss et al., J Clin Oncol 2021

Reported injury signatures: Prerenal / Hemodynamic AKI, Electrolyte Disturbance.

Renal toxicity profile

  1. Prerenal / Hemodynamic AKIPrimary
  2. Electrolyte DisturbanceSecondary

Onset timing & rechallenge

Variable / unpredictable — Not well defined; edema and any creatinine changes evolve during ongoing therapy.

Mechanism of kidney injury

No characterized direct nephron injury. MEK inhibitors commonly cause peripheral edema and fluid retention and can produce hemodynamic shifts; a mild creatinine rise, if seen, is most consistent with prerenal/edema-related changes or diarrhea-driven GI volume loss rather than tubular damage. Class-associated rhabdomyolysis from marked CK elevation is a rare theoretical route to myoglobinuric AKI.

Clinical presentation

Peripheral/periorbital edema and weight gain; if present, a modest reversible creatinine increase with bland sediment; electrolytes generally track GI losses if diarrhea is prominent. Marked CK rise warrants checking for muscle injury.

Management

Supportive: manage edema and diarrhea, ensure euvolemia, and interrupt/reduce dose per protocol for significant toxicity. Intrinsic renal injury has not been characterized; evaluate alternative causes before attributing AKI to the drug.

Risk factors

  • Significant treatment-related diarrhea or edema
  • Baseline cardiac/renal impairment
  • Concurrent nephrotoxins or diuretics

Prevention

  • Manage diarrhea and maintain hydration

Renal dose adjustment

No established renal dose adjustment; mirdametinib is hepatically metabolized with low renal elimination, so reduced GFR is not expected to require modification. Dosing is BSA-based in children. No data in severe impairment or dialysis.

Dialyzability & ESKD dosing

Not characterized; a small, protein-bound, non-renally cleared molecule is unlikely to be appreciably dialyzed. No ESKD dosing guidance.

Differential diagnosis

Distinguish edema/prerenal creatinine change (volume redistribution, responds to diuresis/euvolemia) from rare rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI (very high CK, pigmented sediment); structural MEK-inhibitor nephrotoxicity is not described.

Monitoring

  • Weight and edema assessment each visit
  • LVEF (echo) and ophthalmologic exam per MEK-inhibitor label
  • CK if muscle symptoms
  • Serum creatinine and electrolytes on therapy

Key trials & series

  • NF106 (Weiss, JCO 2021) — mirdametinib NF1 plexiform-neurofibroma trial
  • ReNeu — registrational adult/pediatric NF1-PN study supporting 2025 approval

Clinical pearls

  • Edema is the signature MEK-inhibitor effect — a small creatinine bump usually reflects fluid shifts, not tubular injury.
  • Track CK: marked elevation is the one route to true (myoglobinuric) AKI in this class.

Anticancer mechanism

Oral allosteric MEK1/2 inhibitor that blocks downstream MAPK/ERK signaling, shrinking neurofibromas in the constitutively active RAS/MAPK setting of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1, with loss of the RAS-GAP neurofibromin). Approved for adults and children with NF1-associated symptomatic, inoperable plexiform neurofibromas.

Note

2025 approval with minimal renal-specific data; the cited NF106 trial used the same agent (PD-0325901) in NF1 PN. Prerenal/edema framing is conservative MEK-class reasoning, not a quantified renal signal.

Guidelines & consensus

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.

  • ADQI (2026) — The nephrotoxic effects of anti-cancer therapies: consensus report of the 34th Acute Disease Quality Initiative workgroupProvides expert-based statements (modified Delphi) on preventing and managing cisplatin/platinum-associated AKI, including isotonic IV hydration, attention to volume status and concomitant nephrotoxins, and incorporates evidence that IV magnesium supplementation may reduce cisplatin-associated AKI; emphasizes risk stratification and standardized AKI definitions.Nat Rev Nephrol · PMID 41361704
  • SIRM (2022) — SIRM-SIN-AIOM: appropriateness criteria for evaluation and prevention of renal damage in the patient undergoing contrast medium examinations-consensus statements from Italian College of Radiology (SIRM), Italian College of Nephrology (SIN) and Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM)Recommends eGFR-based renal risk assessment and pre/post-contrast isotonic saline or sodium bicarbonate hydration; advises maintaining a 5-7 day interval between iodinated contrast administration and cisplatin in cancer patients to reduce additive nephrotoxicity.Radiol Med · PMID 35303246
  • KDIGO (2020) — KDIGO Controversies Conference on onco-nephrology: understanding kidney impairment and solid-organ malignancies, and managing kidney cancerIdentifies platinum compounds (especially cisplatin) as leading cytotoxic causes of acute tubular injury, AKI, and electrolyte/magnesium wasting; calls for interdisciplinary onco-nephrology care, accurate GFR estimation, and individualized drug dosing in patients with reduced kidney function.Kidney Int · PMID 33126977
  • KDIGO (2020) — KDIGO Controversies Conference on onco-nephrology: kidney disease in hematological malignancies and the burden of cancer after kidney transplantationAddresses chemotherapy-associated AKI/CKD in hematologic cancer, GFR estimation and chemotherapy dosing in patients with reduced kidney function, and management priorities and research gaps for onco-nephrology care.Kidney Int · PMID 33276867
  • ADDIKD (2025) — Integrating International Consensus Guidelines for Anticancer Drug Dosing in Kidney Dysfunction (ADDIKD) into everyday practiceProvides GRADE-based, drug-specific dose-adjustment recommendations for anticancer agents in kidney dysfunction (illustrated for methotrexate, cisplatin, carboplatin and nivolumab); the recommendations build on Part 1's standardised CKD-EPI eGFR assessment rather than Cockcroft-Gault creatinine clearance.EClinicalMedicine · PMID 40290844
  • ADDIKD (2025) — Aligning kidney function assessment in patients with cancer to global practices in internal medicineThree consensus recommendations: assess kidney function by GFR (measured GFR or CKD-EPI eGFR), classify it using KDIGO categories, and use this uniform approach to dose anticancer drugs — moving cancer medicine away from Cockcroft-Gault estimated creatinine clearance.EClinicalMedicine · PMID 40290845
  • ADDIKD (2025) — A methodology for determining dosing recommendations for anticancer drugs in patients with reduced kidney functionEstablishes that, where RCT evidence is lacking, anticancer drug dosing recommendations in kidney dysfunction should be derived by critically appraising observational literature via GRADE combined with structured international multidisciplinary consensus voting.EClinicalMedicine · PMID 40290846
  • KDIGO (2013) — Diagnosis, evaluation, and management of acute kidney injury: a KDIGO summary (Part 1)Defines/stages AKI by serum creatinine and urine output; emphasizes avoiding nephrotoxins, maintaining euvolemia/perfusion, dose-adjusting drugs to kidney function, and monitoring high-risk patients — the framework applied to nephrotoxic anti-cancer agents.Crit Care · PMID 23394211
  • KDIGO (2024) — Executive summary of the KDIGO 2024 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease: known knowns and known unknownsEvaluate and risk-stratify CKD, manage to delay progression and its complications, and practise explicit medication management and drug stewardship — the framework the atlas's G1–G5 eGFR banding and every renal dose-adjustment recommendation sit inside. Because the guideline excludes dialysis and transplant recipients by its own statement of scope, its recommendations do not carry to those settings, where this atlas's dialyzability and post-transplant guidance rests on other sources.Kidney Int · PMID 38519239
  • KDIGO (2021) — Executive summary of the KDIGO 2021 Guideline for the Management of Glomerular DiseasesProvides the staging/treatment framework for drug-associated glomerular lesions (e.g., bisphosphonate- and interferon-related collapsing FSGS, VEGF-inhibitor podocytopathy/proteinuria), including immunosuppression and supportive RAAS-blockade strategies.Kidney Int · PMID 34556300
  • KDIGO (2024) — Executive summary of the KDIGO 2024 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of ANCA-Associated VasculitisUpdates immunosuppressive induction (rituximab/cyclophosphamide), incorporates avacopan and lower-dose or glucocorticoid-sparing regimens — the management framework for drug- and checkpoint-inhibitor-associated ANCA/pauci-immune glomerulonephritis.Kidney Int · PMID 38388147
  • KDIGO (2024) — Executive summary of the KDIGO 2024 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Lupus NephritisUpdates first-line lupus nephritis therapy to combination immunosuppression with the addition of belimumab or a calcineurin inhibitor (voclosporin) — informs management of immune-complex/lupus-like glomerulonephritis encountered with immunotherapy.Kidney Int · PMID 38182299
  • KDIGO (2025) — Executive summary of the KDIGO 2025 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy (IgAN) and Immunoglobulin A Vasculitis (IgAV)Encourages liberal kidney biopsy and stricter proteinuria control (<0.5 g/d, ideally <0.3 g/d) with RAAS blockers, SGLT2 inhibitors, and targeted-release budesonide — the framework for IgA-dominant glomerular lesions, including those triggered by immune-modulating cancer therapy.Kidney Int · PMID 40975525

References

4 peer-reviewed references. Citation metadata via PubMed / NLM.

  1. 1.NF106: A Neurofibromatosis Clinical Trials Consortium Phase II Trial of the MEK Inhibitor Mirdametinib (PD-0325901) in Adolescents and Adults With NF1-Related Plexiform Neurofibromas.Weiss BD et al. · J Clin Oncol · 2021 · PMID 33507822
  2. 2.Treatment decisions and the use of MEK inhibitors for children with neurofibromatosis type 1-related plexiform neurofibromas.Armstrong AE et al. · BMC Cancer · 2023 · PMID 37328781
  3. 3.New drug toxicities in the onco-nephrology world.Perazella MA et al. · Kidney Int · 2015 · PMID 25671763
  4. 4.Onconephrology: mitigation of renal injury in chemotherapy administration.Selamet U et al. · Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens · 2024 · PMID 38095483
Educational monograph from NephTox (nephtox.com). Not medical advice — verify against current guidelines before any clinical decision.