A Drink a Day May Thwart Kidney Cancer
Experts still see smoking and weight control as better options

(HealthDay News) -- Moderate drinking appears to reduce the risk for the most common kind of kidney cancer.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston reviewed data from 12 studies that involved more than 750,000 people in five countries and concluded that people who drank an average of one alcoholic beverage a day were about 30 percent less likely to develop renal cancer than were people who didn't drink.

This lower risk was seen in people who drank beer, wine or liquor. The findings were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute .

Even though they found that drinking does lower the risk of renal cell cancer, authors of the review emphasized that maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking are the best ways to reduce the risk of this type of cancer. They also noted that alcohol increased the risk of cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, throat, esophagus, liver, breast and, possibly, the colon and rectum.

"These healthy lifestyle choices [not smoking and weight control] should be encouraged, and doing so may also reduce the risk of many other cancers as well as cardiovascular disease," study author Jung Eun Lee said in a statement.

Renal cell cancer accounts for about nine of 10 cases of kidney cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

This type of kidney cancer usually grows as a single mass within the kidney. However, tumors are sometimes found in more than one part of a kidney or in both kidneys at the same time. Most renal cell cancers are detected before they metastasize.

In renal cell cancer, malignant cells form in tubules, or very small tubes, in the kidney, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Smoking and misuse of certain pain medications can increase the risk of renal cell cancer. People with certain genetic conditions, such as von Hippel-Lindau disease or hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma, also have an increased risk of developing this type of cancer.

Symptoms of renal cell carcinoma can include:

• Blood in the urine
• A lump in the abdomen
• A pain in the side that doesn't go away
• Loss of appetite
• Weight loss for no known reason
• Anemia

Various procedures that examine the abdomen and kidneys are used to detect and diagnose renal cell cancer, including a physical exam and patient history, blood chemistry tests, urinalysis, liver function test, X-rays, ultrasound, MRI, CT scans and biopsy.

The chance of recovery and treatment options are affected by such factors as the stage of the disease and the person's age and general health, according to the cancer institute. Treatment options include surgery, radiation therapy and arterial embolization.

Although people with early stage renal cell cancer are cured about half of the time, the prognosis remains poor for people with more advanced cancer, the institute states.

More than 54,000 people in the United States are expected to be diagnosed with renal cell cancer this year, and about 13,000 people will die from the disease.

On the Web

To learn more about kidney cancer, visit the National Kidney Foundation.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Brigham and Women's Hospital, news release, May 15, 2007; American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org); U.S. National Cancer Institute (www.cancer.gov)
Author: Robert Preidt
Publication Date: May 31, 2008
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