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DALLAS, Texas (Ivanhoe Newswire) - Kidney cancer is among the 10 most common cancers in both men and women. About 81,000 people will be diagnosed with it this year. A decade ago, advanced kidney cancer was a death sentence, but now, new therapies and cutting-edge drugs are helping more people live longer, healthier lives.

“I noticed there was some blood in my urine,” said Brent Hall, a kidney cancer patient.

It’s one of the big red flags when it comes to kidney cancer.

“I used to have a trace of blood in my urine, every physical, but this time there was more than a trace,” said Ralph Auriemma, another kidney cancer patient.

But once a person sees blood in their urine, it means the cancer is probably more advanced.

“Renal cell carcinoma is the most common cancer of the kidney,” said Dr. Thomas Hutson, an oncologist at Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center.

Dr. Hutson says treatments include radiation, chemo, and surgery.

“The cancer can be cured, usually, with surgery, but once it has spread beyond the confines of the kidney to other sites of the body or has returned after initial attempts at curing it, then the cancer is generally not felt to be curable,” explained Dr. Hutson.

That’s when immunotherapy is used using antibodies to turn on the body’s immune system to kill the cancer cells, but now a new study shows the effectiveness of using immunotherapies combined with a new generation of oral therapies.

“And for the first time ever, there’s a small group of patients that can actually witness their cancer disappear on X-rays,” said Dr. Hutson.

The phase three “CLEAR Study” showed by using a combination of drugs, 95 percent of patients saw no further growth of the tumor and 71 percent had a significant reduction in the size of it.

“More patients are living with their cancer longer than ever before in history, and our goal is to cure more patients, and I think that’s a realistic expectation over time,” added Dr. Hutson.

Smoking is the number one risk factor for kidney cancer. Other risk factors include high blood pressure, obesity, family history, and workplace exposure to certain substances.

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