Chicago - Retired PepsiCo executive David Scherb was in bad shape 15 months ago. Kidney cancer had spread to his lungs and one tumor became so big it ate through his sternum and bulged right through the surface of his skin. It was so painful he couldn’t wear a shirt.But last April, he started on a clinical trial of a new experimental kidney cancer drug from Novartis called RAD001. The pain declined, and by summer of 2007 the tumor was no longer visible. A full year later, the tumor remains in check. “If it wasn’t for this drug, I don’t feel like I would be here,” Scherb says.

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