Is kidney cancer hereditary?

Can be: Certain hereditary syndromes including von hippel lindau, birt-hogg dube syndrome for example, increase risk of kidney cancer. These syndromes typically have other manifestations as well. However, the vast majority of kidney cancer is sporadic.

Sometimes: The vast majority of kidney cancer cases are not inherited (sporadic). There are a handful of syndromes known to be associated with different types of kidney cancer but they are rare. A well known example is von hippel-lindau syndrome.