Renal cancer, as a common urinary system tumor, its occurrence and development involve a series of genetic events including changes in the level of epigenetics. Its etiology is complex and highly heterogeneous. Renal cell carcinoma is the chief type of kidney cancer, while the clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC) is the most common subtype of renal cell carcinoma.Recently, exon sequencing revealed that the mutation rate of polybromo-1 (PBRM1) gene in CCRCC can be as high as 40%. BAF180 protein, which is encoded by PBRM1 gene, is one of the specific subunits of the chromatin remodeling complex PBAF (polybromo-associated BRG1-associated factor), a type of SWItch/sucrose nonfermentable (SWI/SNF) complexes. It not only participates in the formation of PBAF complex, but also mediates the binding of the complex to specific DNA regions, thus affecting the gene transcription and translation processes, so indicates that PBRM1 plays an important role in the occurrence and development of renal cell carcinoma. The research status, molecular mechanism and clinical transformation of the major cancer related genes in CCRCC,especially the tumor suppressor gene PBRM1, were reviewed in present paper, in order to provide reference for the basic and clinical transformation research of SWI/SNF in renal cell carcinoma and other related tumors.