any changes may not come soon enough for 15-year-old natalee troller and others battling diseases with no good options. >> every day that we don't do something or don't try to fight the cancer, that's another day that the cancer can grow and get worse, so we just always feel that in the back of our mind that pressure that there is a time limit. >> meg terrell is with us. meg, you mentioned that the federal government is becoming more interested in compassionate use. what if any changes are brewing? >> there aren't good numbers how many of these requests get made and how many are denied. the figures were from the fda. that means they got through the companies and the fda had a chance to review them and rejected three at that point. >> the fda did. >> the fda did. there is a push to understand that and legislation proterribly brewing that would ask the gao to look at how welcome passion anyti -- well compassion anytime use is working. >> the system was put into place in 19 87. this came into place with hiv and aids and adopted by breast cancer activists. this has been around for a long t

. >> reporter: two years into her battle with the rare form of cancer, natalee troller and her family think they may be close to something that could help. >> when we found this new medicine, pd 1, we definitely wanted to participate in the trial. >> reporter: pd 1 is part of a new class of experimental drugs. the family and oncologists asked for access. they all said no. >> it was only including people 18 and up, and since i'm only 15, they wouldn't let me in. we asked for compassion et use, but they denied it. >> reporter: compassionate use is a way to use outside of the clinical trials for patients with no other options. natalee and countless others fit that describe. >> agonizing. >> reporter: doug williams leads research, two years ago, the company was working on a therapy. with compassion et use requests pouring in, biogen prepared enough supply to give 5,000 patients if the drug proved to work in clinical trials. >> an individual situation while difficult and heart wrenching has to be weighed against the backdrop of what the ultimate goal is which is to bring these drugs to mar