Furthermore, microarray analysis performed in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) indicated that increased cytoplasmic levels of BNIP3 correlated with metastasis and poor prognosis implicating that BNIP3 acts as a pro-survival factor and its levels could be used as a prognostic marker for this type of cancer (Macher-Goeppinger et al., 2017). This evidence concerns the gene BNIP3 and hereditary clear cell renal cell carcinoma.