Considering the known role of TFEB as a master regulator of the lysosomal-autophagy pathway (Argani et al., 2001, 2005; Camparo et al., 2008; Davis et al., 2003), and the recent evidence indicating that activation of autophagy driven by MiT/TFE genes plays an important role in pancreatic cancer (Perera et al., 2015), we tested whether autophagy plays a role in TFE-tRCC development. Here, TFEB is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.