The main risk factors for kidney cancer include obesity, hypertension, smoking and some genetic conditions, although none of these risk factors are particularly strong. There are geographic differences in the incidence such that the disease is rare in Japan compared with the Western world. There is a familial incidence of this disease in 2% of cases and the most importantly recognised is the association with von Hippel Lindau syndrome. In this syndrome renal cancer is associated with other disorders including retinal angioma, haemangioblastoma and phaeochromocytoma.
