Jennifer Matthews: The game of life took a devastating turn for Rudolph Russo when he was diagnosed with a digestive tract cancer known as GIST.

Rudolph Russo: There are mornings when I say damn it that's the end of this, then I'll wake up and get back doing what I am supposed to be doing.

Jennifer Matthews: For a few years, the drug Gleevec kept Rudolph's cancer in check. But like many patients, he became resistant.

Dr. George Demetri: It was therefore really more painful when the resistance came on because people had literally come back from the brink of death and then to have the resistance build up and have the tumor start to come back was particularly painful.

Jennifer Matthews: Now, Rudolph takes the drug Sutent as part of a clinical trial. Unlike Gleevec, Sutent shuts down the growth of blood vessels that feed the cancer. Here's a tumor before treatment with Sutent, and after.

Dr. George Demetri: The new drug is able to shut down not just one signal in the cells but multiple signals.

Jennifer Matthews: In Doctor Demetri's study, patients who took the new drug lived almost twice as long as those who didn't. Rudolph says it has given him precious time with his grandkids.

Rudolph Russo: This is a drug that is keeping me alive. If I did not do anything, I would be dead. I hope to see him get married have some children, so I can bounce them on my knee. I think a lot of him.

Jennifer Matthews: Rudolph says he's a fighter and Sutent has given him another chance to prove it. This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.