Despite their efficacy, many RCC patients end up with drug resistance and tumor progression after 6‐15 months of treatment except for those who are inherently refractory to sunitinib therapy.7 Recently, a few studies have disclosed the potential molecular biological mechanism of drug resistance such as androgen receptor (AR) phosphorylation,8 apoptosis induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress,9 sequestration in lysosomes and inhibition of the autophagic flux.10 However, few reports focus on genetic biomarkers which might be validated as prognostic factors for patients with sunitinib response. Here, AR is linked to renal cell carcinoma.