It has recently been discovered that the immune receptor Tim-3 (T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3) and it's ligand galectin-9 determines the capability of various types of malignant cells [e.g., acute myeloid leukemia (AML), colorectal cancer] to escape host immune surveillance (Kang et al., 2015; Gonçalves Silva et al., 2017; Sakhnevych et al., 2018; Yasinska et al., 2018b). The gene discussed is LGALS9; the disease is acute myeloid leukemia.