Bellesoeur A, et al. - An exploratory assessment was conducted of the pharmacological and clinical properties of axitinib in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients. An improvement was yielded in the progression-free survival of the patients via axitinib, with clinically based dose escalation compared to sorafenib. This finding led to US Food and Drug Administration approval. In the first-line setting, axitinib could not illustrate an improved efficacy over sorafenib. Nevertheless, the field of RCC treatment altered rapidly with novel tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) as cabozantinib or the emergence of checkpoint inhibitors as nivolumab. Hence, the place of axitinib in therapy was challenged.