The death rate from kidney cancer has nearly tripled in the U.S. in the past 20 years, according to a recent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.(1) In 2006 alone, nearly 40,000 Americans were diagnosed with kidney cancer, and about 13,000 Americans died from it.
Unfortunately, increased early detection and treatment of small tumors have done little to stem this cancer’s meteoric rise. “We would expect to see a decrease in mortality,” stated the study’s senior author Dr. Brent K. Hollenbeck. "Surprisingly, that's not what we found. Our research shows that an increase in detection and treatment is not leading to a reduction in the kidney cancer mortality rate."
As is often the case, modern medicine’s siren call of early detection and more aggressive treatment with surgery and/or drugs as being our best hope for improving health and longevity fails to do much more than enrich the medical establishment.
What does appear to be beneficial is prevention. Growing research suggests that lifestyle factors may play an important role in decreasing the risk of the most common type of kidney cancer, renal cell carinoma, which accounts for about 85% of all kidney cancer cases.
High blood pressure
Perhaps the greatest lifestyle-related risk factor for the development of renal cell carinoma is hypertension. Hypertension appears to raise risk at least several fold. The higher the blood pressure, the greater the risk. Indeed, the rising incidence of hypertension in America (about half of all Americans ages 55 to 64 now have hypertension) may account for some of the epidemic rises in kidney cancer. The good news, research has found, is that lowering blood pressure may reduce risk.(2)
Overweight
The risk of renal cell carinoma is at least twice as high in overweight people as it is in those with a body mass index (BMI) in the lower half of the normal range (18.5 to 22). The dramatic increase over the last two decades in the prevalence of overweight and obese Americans has likely played a significant role in the increasing death rate from renal cell carinoma.
Excess body fat is known to result in insulin resistance, higher insulin levels, and elevated levels of IGF-1 and TNF-alpha, which may promote renal cell carinoma. Weight loss improves insulin sensitivity and lowers blood pressure, TNF-alpha and IGF-1, which suggests it may well reduce the risk of renal cell carinoma.
Grains
The types of foods we eat (and don’t eat) may matter a great deal, too, in staving off kidney cancer. One cancer-promoter may be refined grains. A large recent study of people in Italy found that eating a lot of refined grains increased the risk of renal cell carinoma.(3)
Vegetables, fruit
Cancer-fighters may be vegetables and fruit. In the same study of Italian residents, eating more vegetables was associated with about a 35% decreased risk of getting renal cell carinoma. And a study involving approximately 61,000 women in Sweden found that consuming more bananas, carrots, beets, lettuce, cucumbers, and cabbage substantially reduced the risk of developing renal cell carcinoma.(4)
Interestingly, in this same study of Swedish women, drinking more fruit juices was associated with a greater risk of renal cell carcinoma, perhaps because fruit juices, usually calorie-dense and sugar-dense, trigger excess insulin and other pro-growth hormone release.
Seafood
Another newly published study of this same group of Swedish women showed, over a 15-year follow-up period, that the women who ate the most fatty fish had about one-fourth the risk of developing renal cell carcinoma as the women who consumed little or no fatty fish.(5)
Fatty fish was key. The women who ate mostly low-fat fish did not experience a significant reduction in the risk of renal cell carcinoma, perhaps because low-fat fish have far less vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids – both of which appear to reduce the risk of several other types of cancer.
Summing up
To cut your risk of getting renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, the best advice is to consume whole grains rather than refined grains, and eat more vegetables and fruits (not juices) and fatty fish. In addition, cutting back on salt, quitting smoking, and losing as much excess weight as possible are all likely to further reduce the risk of kidney cancer.
Clearly, these lifestyle changes are far more important than early diagnosis and standard medical interventions.
1. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2006; 98: 1331.
2. New England Journal of Medicine, 2000; 343: 1305.
3. International Journal of Cancer, 2006; Published Online: October 20, 2006 (DOI: 10.1002/ijc.22225).
4. International Journal of Cancer, 2005; 113 (3): 451.
5. JAMA, 2006; 296: 1371.
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