The Association between Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Nested Case-Control Study

Background: Overexpression of VEGF is implicated in the pathogenesis of both renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). We evaluated the association between AMD and RCC risk. Methods: We conducted a matched case–control study within a population-representative database from the United Kingdom. Study cases were defined as individuals with any diagnostic code of RCC. For every case, four eligible controls were matched on age, sex, practice site, calendar time, and duration of follow-up. Exposure of interest was diagnosis of AMD prior to cancer diagnosis. Adjusted ORs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for RCC were estimated using conditional logistic regression. In a secondary analysis, we evaluated the association between other retinopathies and RCC and AMD and the hypovascular pancreatic cancer. Results: The study population included 1,547 patients with RCC and 6,066 matched controls. Median follow-up time was 6 years (IQR, 3–9). AMD diagnosis was associated with a significantly increased RCC risk (OR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.09–3.29). In contrast, there was no association between other retinopathies and RCC risk (OR, 0.8; 95% CI, 0.56–1.15). AMD was associated with a lower risk for pancreatic cancer (OR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.35–0.64). Conclusions: Patients with AMD may be at higher risk for RCC. Providers should be aware of this potential link and consider screening for RCC within this population. Impact: Providers should be aware of the potential link between AMD and RCC. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(5); 743–7. ©2017 AACR.