More than 60,000 people in the United States are told they have kidney cancer each year. Men get kidney cancer more often than women. People who smoke are more likely to get kidney cancer than nonsmokers. Here are some other risk factors:

• Having Von Hippel-Lindau disease;
• Family history of kidney cancer;
• Obesity;
• Regular contact with chemicals, such as cadmium, benzene, or asbestos.

However, many people with kidney cancer have no known risk factors.