We analyzed the production of soluble HLA-E by 98 different established human tumor cell lines, representing solid tumors as melanomas (n = 30), carcinomas (cancers of the lung (n = 5), colo-rectum (n = 12), kidney (n = 10), ovary (n = 3), breast (n = 11) and prostate (3)), thyroid cancer (n = 1), cervix cancer (n = 1), sarcomas (osteosarcomas, n = 3), gliomas (n = 2) and liquid tumors (mesotheliomas (n = 7), myelomas (n = 7) and leukemias (n = 3)). The gene discussed is HLA-E; the disease is plasma cell myeloma.