Background: From 1973 to 1991, the incidence of kidney cancer in the United States increased by 35.4%.
Methods: A multicenter, hospital-based case-control study was conducted from 1977 to 1993 through an interview of 788 patients with renal cell carcinoma and 779 control subjects.
Results: Compared with those who never smoked, the odds ratio (OR) for renal cell carcinoma among current cigarette smokers was 1.4 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-2.0) for men and 1.1 (95% CI 0.7-1.6) for women. Among men, there was a rising trend in the odds ratios with increasing pack-years of smoking (P < 0.01) but not with the number of cigarettes smoked per day. The OR among those currently smoking nonfilter cigarettes exclusively was 2.4 (95% CI 1.2-4.9) for men and 2.0 (95% CI 0.4-11.1) for women. No increased risk was observed among current smokers of filter cigarettes. Among men, the OR associated with chewing tobacco was 3.2 (95% CI 1.1-8.7). Total alcohol consumption was unrelated to the risk of renal cell carcinoma. A joint effect was observed among subjects with a high body mass index who reported a history of hypertension (OR = 1.9, 95% CI 1.01-3.5) for men and 3.2 (95% CI 1.3-7.7) for women.
Conclusion: High body weight and hypertension were related jointly to renal cell carcinoma. Smoking nonfilter cigarettes and long term cigarette smoking (> or = 30 years) was a predictor for renal cell carcinoma risk in men. No significant association was found between smoking and renal cell carcinoma in women.