Q. Where are the kidneys?
A. We have two kidneys, which are located either side of the spine, in the small of the back.
Q. Are there different types of kidney cancer?
A. The vast majority of kidney cancers are renal cell cancers. Most of the others are cancers of the renal pelvis. There are several types of renal cell cancers. Most are classed as ‘clear cell’ or ‘conventional’. A smaller number fall into other types, which are called papillary, chromaphobe, collecting duct and unclassified renal cell cancers.
Q. How common is kidney cancer?
A. There are about 190,000 newcases of kidney cancer each year around the world, which means it accounts for about one in fifty cancers. In the UK and USA it about the tenth most common type of cancer.
Q. What are the risk factors for kidney cancer?
A. Like most cancers, kidney cancer becomes more common as you get older. Two-thirds of all kidney cancers occur in people over the age of 60. Kidney cancer is also more common in men: 60% of cases and in men and only 40% in women. Obesity is a major risk factor, involved in one quarter of all cases of kidney cancer. Another major risk is smoking, which increases the risk of getting kidney cancer between two and three times.   Smaller increases in risk have also been found for people with kidney diseases and people working in the iron and steel industries.
Q. Does the diet affect the risk of kidney cancer?
A. There is no clear evidence to suggest that diet affects the risk of getting kidney cancer.
Q. Does kidney cancer run in families?
A. Kidney cancer does not normally run in families, so having one or more relatives with this type of cancer would not increase your risk. However, there are some rare inherited conditions which carry a very high risk of getting kidney and other cancers.
Q. How dangerous is kidney cancer?
A. Slightly over half of all people diagnosed with kidney cancer will die from the disease. The older the patient, the greater the risk, with only one third of patients over 70 surviving for more than five years after they are diagnosed.  Over the last thirty years there has been a slow increase in the number of people dying from kidney cancer.
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