How common is kidney cancer and what are the likely causes?
Kidney cancer is the eighth most common cancer in males and the fourteenth most common cancer in females in the UK and the number of cases is on the increase. The incidence of kidney cancer has risen by 68% over the past two decades and nearly 7,400 people are affected by the disease in the UK every year. That’s 20 new cases per day. Kidney cancer is most common among people over the age of 40. The causes are not yet fully understood but certain factors have been identified as increasing a person’s risk of developing kidney cancer. • Smoking • Exposure to certain chemicals in the workplace • Obesity • Patients undergoing kidney dialysis • People affected by specific inherited diseases have an increased risk of developing kidney cancer. These include: Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) Syndrome, Birt-Hogg-Dube Syndrome, Hereditary Non-VHL Clear Cell Renal Cell Cancer and Hereditary Papillary Renal Cell Cancer. In the early stages of kidney cancer, there are often no obvious symptoms or they are so
