Increased incidence of renal cell carcinoma with hypertension

Of 276 patients who underwent evaluation to determine the cause of hypertension 2 were found to have unsuspected renal cell carcinoma. This prevalence of 0.73 per cent is 16 times higher than expected for an age-matched population. Both patients exhibited abnormalities of plasma renin activity before radical nephrectomy but they remained hypertensive postoperatively. The data suggest an unexplained association between hypertension and renal cell carcinoma. Furthermore, abnormalities on excretory urograms in hypertensive people should be defined by selective renal arteriography.