Cancer of the Kidney and the Smoking Facts

Cancer of the kidney occurs more often in smokers than nonsmokers and the risk of renal cancer in smokers who quit smoking cigarettes gets lower with each smoke free year.

Renal carcinoma is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality as it is not possible for humans to exist without the complex functions of the kidney that maintain the delicate chemical balance required for life.

Smoking Facts About the Causes of Renal Cancer

"Based on this meta-analysis compiled from 26 studies spanning 37 years, it is clear that cigarette smoking exerts a modest, but significant increase in the risk for one developing RCC. The overall risk of RCC seems to be stronger in men than in women, but when numbers of cigarettes smoked per day is considered, the risks are approximately the same for a given dose. Likewise, the advantages of smoking cessation were observed in reduced risk for both genders."

Hunt, J. D., van der Hel, O. L., McMillan, G. P., Boffetta, P. and Brennan, P. (2005), Renal cell carcinoma in relation to cigarette smoking: Meta-analysis of 24 studies. International Journal of Cancer, 114: 101-108. doi: 10.1002/ijc.20618

In the quote above the RCC refers to renal cell carcinoma.

Cancer of the kidney includes two main types of cancer in the tissues of the kidneys. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) forms in the lining of very small tubes in the kidney that filter the blood and accounts for about 85% of all kidney cancers. Renal pelvis carcinoma forms in the center of the kidney where urine collects.

There is one other type of renal cancer that occurs in young children under 5 years of age. It is called Wilm's tumor and is not one of the diseases caused by smoking.

Smoking Facts about Cancer of Kidney

• Each year in the United States, about 20,000 men and 12,000 women will hear the doctor say:

  "The tests results are in. You have renal cancer"

  In Canada (2010) 4800 will hear those words and in the UK the number is estimated to be 8200.


• According to the National Cancer Institute in the US
  

  "Not smoking is the most effective way to prevent kidney cancer and it is estimated that the elimination of smoking would reduce the rate of renal pelvis cancer by one-half and the rate of renal cell carcinoma by one-third."

• the Canadian Cancer Society lists smoking at the top of the list of causes of kidney cancer.

All blood flows through the kidneys and they produce urine through a complex process of filtration and selective excretion of toxins and reabsorption of products that are necessary to keep your body chemistry well balanced.

This function is necessary for survival and it is not possible to live without your kidneys working well enough to keep your system from becoming poisoned.

All the nicotine byproducts, toxins, and carcinogenic ingredients in cigarettes get into your urine so it cannot be surprising that urinary bladder cancer is also one of the diseases caused by smoking.

Go back to Diseases Caused By Smoking - Facts on the Health Dangers of Smoking Cigarettes

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