@cindyc I had not heard of chromophobe renal cell cancer. But then again, there are a lot of things i haven't heard of!

Truly I am not trying to sound snarky here, and please forgive me if it sounds like it to you. As we patients search for causes/reasons of our health issues [and distress], if we look hard enough or long enough, we may indeed find information to support what we think. It may or may not be misguided. It may or may not be accurate. What I will say with conviction, is that there can be so many factors involved, and each of us can be so different from one another [similar but different, nonetheless] that the combination of what makes up each of us needs to be taken into consideration.

In my own personal experience, my kidney issues initially pointed to specific causes, until further research was done. It was easier to place me into a known box, rather than search outside of it. Bless the heart of the nephrologist who took that chance!
Ginger