Three well-characterised patient cohorts with RCC were used: Study cohort 1 (clear-cell RCC; APLN/APLNR mRNA expression; n = 166); TCGA validation cohort (clear-cell RCC; APLN/APLNR mRNA expression; n = 481); Study cohort 2 (all RCC subtypes; APLNR protein expression/immunohistochemistry; n = 300). Here, APLNR is linked to renal cell carcinoma.