Worldwide, the incidence of kidney cancer has been increasing year by year, estimated to account for 4.0% of the total new cancer cases in 2021. 1 Approximately 90% of renal tumours are renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and approximately 80% of them are clear cell carcinoma. 2 An analysis of the SEER database indicates that RCC incidence has increased, on average, by 0.6% annually and death rates have decreased, on average, by 0.7% annually during 2006 and 2015 in the United States. 3 However, because of an insidious onset of symptoms in RCC, a remarkable proportion of patients are often diagnosed with locally advanced and distant tumours, and they have a poor five-year survival rate of about 10%. 4,5 Pinin (PNN) was initially identified and characterized as a desmosome-associated molecule as early as 1992. 6 The PNN gene