Risk factors

risk factors

A person's risk of developing kidney cancer depends on many factors.

• smoking
  • a strong dose-dependent increase in risk is seen associated with numbers of cigarettes smoked per day
    
    
• higher body mass index
  
  
• hypertension
  
  
• other risk factors include:
  • occcupatinonal exposure - to asbestos, trichloroethylene, or thiazide, and use of acetaminophen or other analgesic drugs
  • polycystic kidney disease
  • chronic hepatitis C infection
    
    
• genetics
  • 2% - 3% of RCC are hereditary and several autosomal dominant syndromes have been described e.g. - von Hippel-Lindau (VHL), hereditary papillary renal carcinoma (HPRC) (1,2)
  • RCC risk is 2.2-2.6 times higher in people with a first-degree relative with kidney cancer
  • RCC risk does not differ significantly between people whose sibling is affected and people whose parent is affected
  • RCCrisk is higher in people whose parent has/had lung or prostate cancer, and those whose sibling has/had bladder or thyroid cancer, melanoma, or non-Hodgkin lymphoma,

An estimated 42% of kidney cancers in the UK are linked to lifestyle factors including smoking (24%) and overweight and obesity (24%) (2).

Atopic dermatitis and RCC

• in a large population-based cohort study, moderate to severe AD (atopic dermatitis) was associated with increased risk of renal malignancy (3)

Reference:

• (1) Chittoria B, Rini BI. Renal cell carcinoma. Cleveland clinic, Center for continuing education 2013
• (2) Cancer research UK 2015. Kidney cancer incidence statistics.
• (3) Oh J, Oh HJ, Han KD, Gee HY, Lee JH. Increased Risk of Renal Malignancy in Patients with Moderate to Severe Atopic Dermatitis. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Oct 16;15(20):5007. doi: 10.3390/cancers15205007.