BACKGROUND: Obesity and hypertension have been implicated as risk factors for the development of renal-cell cancer. METHODS: We examined the health records of 363,992 Swedish men who underwent at least one physical examination from 1971 to 1992 and were followed until death or the end of 1995. Men with cancer (renal-cell cancer in 759 and renal-pelvis cancer in 136) were identified by cross-linkage of data with the nationwide Swedish Cancer Registry. Poisson regression analysis was used to estimate relative risks, with adjustments for age, smoking status, body-mass index, and diastolic blood pressure. RESULTS: As compared with men in the lowest three eighths of the cohort for body-mass index, men in the middle three eighths had a 30 to 60 percent greater risk of renal-cell cancer, and men in the highest two eighths had nearly double the risk (P for trend,
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Comment In: N Engl J Med. 2001 Feb 15;344(7):531-211221620