Kidney stones are one of the most common renal pathologies. While emerging evidence has implicated a potential association between kidney stones and upper urinary tract cancers (including renal cancer), there is limited understanding as to the common underlying biological pathways functionally linking the etiology of kidney stone formation and the incidence, development, and progression of urinary tract cancers. From a clinical perspective, kidney stone disease can be a barrier to oncologic care due to renal obstruction. From the epidemiological perspective, risk factors associated with both conditions include smoking, alcohol consumption, diet, and gender. Herein, we review the association between renal calculi and malignancy of the upper urinary tract and discuss the current understanding of (a) potential shared mechanisms, and (b) the impact this has on shared therapeutic management of both conditions.
American journal of clinical and experimental urology. 2022 Oct 15*** epublish ***
Meredith Mihalopoulos, Alan Yaghoubian, Shirin Razdan, Johnathan A Khusid, Reza Mehrazin, Ketan K Badani, John P Sfakianos, William M Atallah, Ashutosh K Tewari, Peter Wiklund, Mantu Gupta, Natasha Kyprianou
Department of Urology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, NY 10029, USA.