Family history of cancer among cases of upper urothelial tumours in a Balkan nephropathy area.

The highest relative risk of developing tumours of the renal pelvis and ureters (TPU) in a general population is confined to areas where Balkan nephropathy (BN) is endemic. Whether there is a higher frequency of cancer of any site in families with TPU cases from this BN endemic part of the world was tested by a case-referent study. A group of 65 rural patients with histologically proven TPU was individually matched with the same number of their nearest neighbours, who served as controls. Comparison of age-standardized ratios revealed that over a period of 30 years family members of the cases experienced a significantly higher risk of (non-urinary) cancer deaths than family members of their pairmates.