Causes and Risk Factors

Medical researchers have not been able to identify the exact causes of renal cell carcinoma, but the evidence from clinical trials and medical experience built up over time reveals a strong connection between several risk factors and renal cell carcinoma.

Gender: Renal cell carcinoma is more common among men than women.
Race: Renal cell carcinoma is more common among African Americans than Caucasians.

Age: Renal cell carcinoma is more common in people between the age of 40 and 60.

Smoking: Smoking cigarettes increases the risk for renal cell carcinoma by 40 percent. This risk decreases if the person stops smoking.

Obesity: Overweight people are at higher risk to develop kidney cancer.                
A high caloric diet can increase the risk for renal cell carcinoma.

Lack of physical exercises: Several studies suggest that people who are not active physically have a higher risk to develop kidney cancer.

The exposure to certain chemical and substances, such as asbestos (a mineral fiber that can be used in construction materials for insulation and as fire-retardant) and cadmium (a rare, soft, bluish-white chemical element used in batteries and plastic industry), also increase the risk for renal cell carcinoma. Medical conditions

•   Non-genetic conditions such as problems with blood pressure (high blood pressure increases the risk for kidney cancer) increase the risk for renal cell carcinoma.

• Genetic and hereditary conditions such as Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease (a rare inherited disorder, caused by a VHL gene, in which blood vessels grow abnormally in the eyes, brain, spinal cord, adrenal glands, or other parts of the body), hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma (people that suffer from this condition have a hereditary tendency to develop one or more papillary renal cell carcinomas), Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome (an inherited condition in which benign tumors develop in hair follicles on the head, chest, back, and arms), hereditary leiomyomatosis renal cell carcinoma syndrome (a medical condition where fibrous tumors develop within the uterus and skin), hereditary renal oncocytoma (an inherited medical condition characterized by the tendency to develop a benign type of kidney tumor - oncocytoma - with a low potential of becoming malignant), and polycystic kidney disease (an inherited condition where grape-like clusters of fluid-filled cysts develop in both of the kidneys causing chronic renal failure and end-stage renal disease) also increase the risk for kidney disease.

A family history of renal cell carcinoma: Those people that have a family history of renal cell carcinoma are at a higher risk for developing kidney cancer.

Certain treatment such as dialysis: (is a life support treatment that does not treat any kidney disease, but it substitutes the kidney’s function of filtering the blood), medication (certain pain relievers - like Phenacetin, and those available over-the-counter, diuretics - medication used in the treatment of the high blood pressure) can increase the risk for renal cell carcinoma.