Female Speaker: 56-year-old South Carolinian, Steven Knight Jr., woke up before dawn New Year's Day with a searing pain on his right side. He went to the emergency room, thinking he had a kidney stone, but physicians discovered something much more ominous, a cancerous tumor on his right kidney. Steven Knight Jr.: It was a shock, but I still figured I had a lot of confidence in my doctor that there would be something to be done about it. Female Speaker: Steven was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, the official name for kidney cancer and immediately had a nephrectomy, the surgical removal of a part or all of the kidney. Steven Knight Jr.: It took several months to return to what you would call normal as far as lifting and working and your activities. But surgery was a lot less than I ever imagined it to be. Female Speaker: But within a year, doctors' discovered the cancer has spread to his lymph nodes. They told Steven he probably had less than 6 months left to live. Steven Knight Jr.: They put me in a little bit of a panic, in a big rush of panic, a little bit of fear thrown in there, a real concern about who is going to fulfill my responsibility that I had with my family. Female Speaker: Steven worried about who would care for his aging parents and he fell into despair. Steven Knight Jr.: I had no hope whatsoever left. I had already pretty much figured that 6 months was about it, give or take a little. Female Speaker: Steven was told his best chance for a better outcome may lie in a clinical trial, testing an immunotherapy, a medication that works with the patient's immune system. Dr. Ronald Bukowski: When we learned that things like chemotherapy weren't very useful in the treatment of advanced kidney cancer, the concept arose that perhaps we could use the body's own immune system as a way to treat the cancer, sort of mobilize the body's immune response if you will to treat the cancer and that's proven to be the treatments that really have emerged as potentially useful. Female Speaker: But there was one significant drawback associated with immunotherapy medications. Dr. Ronald Bukowski: These are difficult medicines for patients to take for long periods, they're not pleasant, they have a lot of side effects for these folks. Female Speaker: But despite the side effects, these immuno therapies appear to work well in some patients. Dr. Ronald Bukowski: And it has been found that about 40% of patients will have some shrinkage of their tumors and this could last for well over a year. Dr. Daniel Petrylak: It's a first step. I mean, you know certainly we're not seeing cures with this unfortunately. But at the same point now we're beginning to see patients whose disease has slowed down. They're clearly not having their cancer progress as rapidly as it did before. Steven Knight Jr.: There is no cancer visible in my body anymore. So I got to see my daughter get married and I didn't expect to see that. So I've had a pretty good year. Female Speaker: Experts say soon therapies that can specifically target the biological foundations of kidney cancer maybe available and there are other innovative treatments on the horizon that offer kidney cancer patients real hope for the future.