EPO and renal carcinoma: Using quantitative real-time reverse-transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) and western blot, we found that primary renal cancer cells and the 6 RCC cell lines including 786-0, 769P, A498, OS-RC-2, Caki-1 and Caki-2 cells expressed EpoR and Epo, consistent with the findings from human RCC surgical samples [12], [17] and suggesting the existence of autocrine activation of EpoR pathway in RCC.