Private MD News

Hepatitis C patients at increased risk of developing kidney cancer

Category: Kidney Diseases

Results of a recent Henry Ford Hospital study suggest that patients who test positive for the hepatitis C virus face a significantly increased risk of developing renal cell carcinoma.

For the study, lead author Stuart Gordon monitored 67,063 patients who were diagnosed with hepatitis C between 1997 and 2006. After adjusting for traditional risk factors such as age, race, gender and preexisting medical conditions, the researchers found that patients infected with hepatitis C are almost twice as likely to develop kidney cancer as were those who did not have the disorder.

"These results add to growing literature that shows that the hepatitis C virus causes disease that extends beyond the liver, and in fact most of our HCV-infected kidney cancer patients had only minimal liver damage," said Gordon.

Although he believes that it is too early to advise more intensive kidney screening for people with hepatitis C, Gordon added that renal defects identified in patients suffering from the condition should raise a red flag in the mind of a personal care physician and must necessitate further testing.