Just a decade ago, doctors had very little to work with in treating kidney cancer, but now, there are new therapies and medications helping patients fight this disease.

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.

Blood in the urine is one of the big red flags when it comes to kidney cancer, but once a person sees it, it means the cancer is probably more advanced.

"Renal Cell Carcinoma is the most common cancer of the kidney," Oncologist at Baylor Scott and White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center Thomas Hutson said.

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," Hutson said.

That's when immunotherapy is used; using antibodies to turn on the body's immune system to kill the cancer cells.

Now, a new study shows the effectiveness of using immunotherapies combined with a new generation of oral therapies.

"For the first time ever, there's a small group of patients that can actually witness their cancer disappear on X-rays," Hutson said.

The phase three Clear Study showed that 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," Hutson said.

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.