Kidney Cancer Like other cancers, kidney or “renal cell” cancer has a family history in 4% of the cases. Familial kidney cancers, like sporadic cases, can arise from three areas of the kidney: the filtering unit (cortex), the concentrating unit (medulla) and the urine collecting unit (calyces, renal pelvis and ureter). Your cancer report will contain words such as Clear Cell, Papillary, Chromaphobe, Oncocytic, Angiomyolipoma, Medullary, or other terms which refer to cells from these areas. These words are descriptive to let you know what the cells look like or where they arose.

The cell description and/or the clinical findings can be the key to the diagnosis. The following lists some, but not all the kidney syndomes:

The disorders do not always have an associated tumor or clinical findings. This makes it important to consider genetic counseling as a way to review the various associations between kidney cancer and other factors. At the 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology genitourinary meeting it was recommended that all patients with kidney cancer under age 43 should be considered for genetic counseling.