. >> reporter: for steve burrin it doesn't get much better than this. >> just part of my life swimming in the ocean, running. >> reporter: but four years ago -- >> i noticed that i was running short of breath and at night i could hear this little noise, a little kind of rattle. >> reporter: he had survived throat cancer eight years earlier but this was more serious. >> they said more than 22 tumors in my lungs and that's when it was looking pretty grim. >> reporter: doctors gave him a year. >> i find him curled up in a ball somewhere and just went down and he said, you know, i just want to die. >> reporter: and then burrin qualified for a trial at ucla. the drug pembrolizumab already approved for melanoma would now be treated or used to treat advanced cancer. 500 patients given by infusion every three weeks doesn't detect the cancer itself. it enable's the bodies immune system to fight it. >> for many patients this is going to be a substantial change from the way we treated it in the fast past. part. >> reporter: tumors shrank significantly or disappeared. dr. edward gieren treated him