Kidney disease may raise cancer risk

Sunday May 10, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- Reduced kidney function may put men at a higher risk for cancers of the lung and the urinary tract, according to a new study published in the April 30, 2009 issue of Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

The study, led by Dr. Germaine Wong and colleagues at the Westmead Hospital in Australia, showed that 23 out of 1000 men who had chronic kidney disease were diagnosed with cancer during a 10-year follow-up, compared to 17 out of 1000 men without kidney disease. This association was not found among women with kidney disease.

Dr. Wong and his colleagues examined data on 3049 people aged 49 to 97 years to establish a correlation between kidney disease and prevalence of cancers of the lung and the urinary tract.

They found that nearly a third of the study participants had moderate kidney disease, but none were serious enough to have used dialysis and underwent kidney transplantation. The researchers suggested that prevention of chronic disease may be a novel and worthwile strategy for reducing cancer risk in the general population.

(By David Liu and edited by Will Levine)