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Editor’s note: Up to one-third of patients with kidney cancer are reported to have metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis, and only a very limited number of therapeutic options are available as treatment. The development of standard screening tests for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) therefore has high priority, with the aim of earlier detection of disease. Chemokines are promising candidate markers – these proteins are involved in tumorigenesis, tumor progression, and antitumor responses. One of the two known transmembrane chemokines is chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand-16 (CXCL-16), which is expressed on immune cells, fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and cancer cells of different tumor origins. It can function as an adhesion molecule for chemokine receptor CXCR-6-expressing immune cells.