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As with other cancers, the exact cause of kidney cancer isn't known. But smoking does seem to increase the risk of getting kidney cancer.
Smokers may be more than twice as likely to develop the most common type of kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma) as non-smokers. The risk seems to increase the more cigarettes you smoke and the more years you smoke for.
If you give up smoking the risk of developing kidney cancer seems to get less as time goes on.
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