Kidney cancers account for approximately 3% of cancers affecting adults and are the third most common urological cancer.
People around 60 years of age living in urban areas are most at risk of developing kidney cancer. Men are 2 to 3 times more likely to get the disease than women.
Risk factors:
- Smoking;
- Obesity;
- Hypertension;
- Acquired cystic kidney disease;
- HCV;
- Exposure to toxic substances: cadmium, asbestos;
- Cytotoxic drugs and chemotherapy;
Renal cell carcinomas can be inherited and occur in familial cancer syndromes:
- Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome - clear cell carcinoma;
- Congenital papillary carcinoma of the kidney - type 1 papillary carcinoma;
- Congenital smooth muscle cell carcinoma (leiomyomatosis) and renal cell carcinoma HLRCC- papillary carcinoma type 2;
- Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome-mostly chromophobe carcinoma;
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WHO classification of renal tumours:
- Clear cell carcinoma- incidence: 75-85%;
- Multifocal (cystic) clear cell carcinoma- incidence: very rare;
- Papillary carcinoma- incidence: 10-15%;
- Chromophobe carcinoma- incidence: 10%;
- Bellini duct carcinoma - incidence: very rare;
- Renal medullary carcinoma - incidence: very rare;
- Carcinoma associated with Xp11 translocation - incidence: very rare;
- Mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma - incidence: very rare;
- Carcinoma associated with embryonal neuroblastoma - incidence: very rare;
- Unclassified renal cell carcinoma - incidence: <10%.