On Jul. 8, 2008, Stanford researchers announced discovered a molecule that kills kidney cancer cells. Ideally, the researchers said, a drug created from this molecule would help fight the life-threatening disease while leaving patients’ kidneys intact.

Almost 54,400 people in the United States are diagnosed with kidney cancer every year, and about 13,000 die from it. Radiotherapy, a powerful weapon used to fight other cancers, has proven to be ineffective in killing kidney cancer. The study findings were published in the journal Cancer Cell.