How kidney cancer is caused by

chronic kidney disease 

People with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an increased risk of heart disease that can block blood supply to the heart or brain causing heart attack or kidney cancer..

Kidney cancer is diagnosed more often in men than women. This could be because in the past more men smoked cigarettes. Smoking increases your risk of getting kidney cancer.

Body weight and height
Being very overweight (obese) increases the risk of getting kidney cancer. A Cancer Research UK study published in 2011 found that being overweight or obese causes around a quarter of kidney cancers (25% in men and 22% in women). Obese means that your body mass index is 30 or higher. Or more roughly, it means that your weight is at least 25% higher than the top of the healthy range for your height. Body mass index (BMI) is worked out by comparing your height and weight.

Being overweight causes changes in hormones in the body, particularly for women. It could be this change in the body’s hormone balance that increases the risk of kidney cancer.

An overview of studies in Scandinavian countries showed that taller men have a higher risk of renal cell carcinoma of the kidney. This Scandinavian review did not show an increased risk in women. But a large UK study has shown that taller women may be at a higher risk of developing kidney cancer than shorter women. So the research is unclear in this area at the moment.

Smoking
If you smoke, your risk of getting kidney cancer goes up. On average, smokers have a 50% increase in risk. But the risk increases with the number of cigarettes that you smoke. People who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day can have up to double the risk of the most common type of kidney cancer (renal cell cancer) compared to non smokers. Smokers also have up to 3 times the risk of developing cancer of the central area of the kidney (the renal pelvis) compared to non smokers. But your risk falls if you stop smoking and after 10 years is the same as a non smoker.

Kidney disease
People with kidney failure have to have their blood filtered by a machine about twice a week. This is called dialysis. People having long term kidney dialysis have an increased risk of developing kidney cysts and this increases the risk of kidney cancer. The longer you have dialysis, the greater your risk of kidney cancer. But this is probably because you needed dialysis due to kidney disease. The dialysis itself is not directly related to the cancer risk.

People with kidney cancer who have these genetic conditions often have cancer in both kidneys (bilateral kidney cancer). They may also have several tumours in each kidney. They often develop the cancer at a younger age than people with non inherited cancers. For more information about these rare types of kidney cancer, contact the relevant organisations on the kidney cancer organisations page.

Hereditary clear cell and papillary renal cell cancer
Hereditary clear cell kidney cancer and hereditary papillary kidney cancers are both caused by inherited faulty genes. They are dominant genetic conditions. This means that you only have to inherit the faulty gene from one parent. Even so, they are both very rare.

Family history
Studies have shown that people with a first degree relative diagnosed with kidney cancer have roughly double the risk of developing renal cell carcinoma themselves. A first degree relative is a parent, brother or sister, or your child.

High blood pressure
Some research studies have found a link between high blood pressure or high blood pressure medicines and kidney cancer. It is more likely that high blood pressure is the link, rather than the medicines. High blood pressure is a known risk factor for kidney disease in general.

Want to learn more knowledge of kidney disease, please consult our website to get more knowledge to ensure that you and your family's health.