The Revolutionary Test for Lung Cancer

In the wake of her experience, she has become a fierce, if cheery, advocate for mass screening. When she realized most people didn't know spiral CT scans even exist, Kaplan wrote an article for NurseWeek, a Sunnyvale-based trade magazine for nurses, urging wider implementation -- and acceptance -- of the tests.

"I was very lucky, and I'd like to spread that luck around," Kaplan says. "I believe very, very firmly in people doing screening. There are so many people dying of lung cancer, and if people are screened the number who are cured would go up. You have to find ways to pay for it, but the [cost] is going down, and the CT scans are getting better."

Scott Musgrove

Steven Dewall

Dr. Fred Grannis, a Southern California thoracic surgeon, believes mass screening for lung cancer can save thousands of smokers' lives.

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More About

• Fred Grannis
• National Cancer Institute
• Pamela Marcus
• Smoking
• Medicine

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The surgery is difficult, Kaplan admits, but because she lived through it twice -- a month apart -- she doesn't put much stock in the gloom-and-doom arguments advanced by those opposed to early detection. Asked whether she was scared by the threat of possible complications -- internal bleeding or a collapsed lung -- she just scoffs.

"I was much more concerned about what would happen if the cancer spread. That's the scary thing. There's always a danger when you do major surgery, but look at the alternative," Kaplan says, pausing for effect.

"There is no alternative, is there?"