What Causes Kidney (Renal Cell) Cancer?

This content has been reviewed and approved by

Robert J. Motzer, MD
Attending Physician

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Although we don't know the exact cause(s) of kidney cancer, there are certain risk factors that increase a person's chances of developing the disease. According to the American Cancer Society, these risk factors include:

• Smoking - a very important risk factor that doubles the risk of kidney cancer
• Being overweight - may be a cause in 20 percent of patients with kidney cancer 
• Age - kidney cancers usually occur in people between the ages of 50 and 70
• Gender - men develop kidney cancer about twice as often as women
• High-fat diet - some studies show that eating food high in saturated fat (all animal fats, dairy products, many processed and fast foods, and some vegetable oils, such as palm or coconut oils) may increase the risk of developing kidney cancer
• Family history - family members (especially close relatives) of a person with kidney cancer have an increased risk of getting the disease
• Long-term dialysis (a method of removing harmful waste material from the blood when the kidneys are not working properly) may lead to kidney cancer
• Rare inherited conditions, such as tuberous sclerosis and Von Hippel Lindau syndrome