The Gal-9/TIM-3 pathway is functional in a wide range of human cancer cells (34), and Gal-9 expression is essentially associated with poor prognostic in many cancers such as renal cell carcinoma or in acute myeloid leukaemia, gastric carcinoma, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (35, 36). Here, LGALS9 is linked to renal cell carcinoma.