Early Detection: Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Nevada, but early detection can save lives. The Nevada Cancer Coalition is focused on increasing lung cancer screening across the state by improving awareness, promoting access to screening, helping to connect and educate healthcare providers, and connect communities with resources to support prevention and early diagnosis.
Learn more about the Nevada Lung Cancer Collaborative and its initiatives, and discover upcoming events and ways to get involved in this work.
Cancer Plan Goal: Increase early detection of cancers to reduce late-stage diagnosis.
National Lung Cancer Screening Day, November 8, 2025
National Lung Cancer Screening Day is a key initiative of Lung Cancer Awareness Month. The campaign has two main goals:
1. Raise awareness of early detection through regular lung cancer screening.
2. Reduce access disparities by encouraging screening providers to open their clinics on Saturdays for patients who cannot leave work during weekdays.
Nevada is the only state in the nation that has never had any facilities participate in this event, but we can change that! If you are a screening facility, we encourage you to open your doors on Saturday, November 8 to provide an extra day of lung cancer screening. Non-screening facilities can support the effort by spreading the word or referring patients for screening. Register your facility and learn more at LungCancerScreeningDay.org.
Get details on this year's participating screening sites:
Elevating Lung Cancer Screening: A Lung Cancer Collaborative Forum
Save the date: Friday, April 17, 7 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in Las Vegas
Join us for this half-day forum aimed at strengthening lung cancer screening programs, building sustainable systems, and improving collaboration among partners statewide. We'll share best practices in patient management, referrals and shared decision-making, stigma-free communications and more. This event is FREE and will include continuing education credits. More details to come.
Interested in supporting this event as an exhibitor? Download the support packet here.
Lung Cancer Collaborative
This group of volunteers is at the heart of lung cancer prevention and early detection efforts and meets quarterly to develop tools, resources, and educational opportunities for healthcare providers; plan lung cancer focused events; and identify ways to engage Nevadans to execute strategies outlined in the Nevada Cancer Plan.
Chair: Dr. Chivonne Harrigal, Personalized Imaging Consultants
Staff Lead: Kayla Ramsey, Lung Cancer Screening Program Manager
Lung Cancer Collaborative Resources
Accomplishments:
- Engaged six screening facilities to participate in Lung Cancer Screening Day on Nov. 8, 2025.
- Supported passage of multiple bills in the Nevada Legislature including, in 2025, SB387 requiring state-regulated insurers to cover lung cancer screening and AB234 protecting Medicaid coverage for lung cancer screening.
- Developed a Lung Cancer Screening Toolkit for Nevada providers.
- Secured inflatable lungs for both northern and southern Nevada outreach efforts.
Nevada QUILSTM Project
This four-year initiative brings the successful QUILS™ (Quality Implementation of Lung Cancer Screening) System to Nevada to help improve our state's lung cancer screening rates and quality of lung screening programs. The QUILS™ System, developed in Kentucky, helps screening centers optimize their services by evaluating factors such as patient eligibility, tobacco cessation efforts, and shared decision-making processes.
Three lung screening champions are working with NCC to ensure the lung cancer screening program’s success. Reno-based radiologist Dr. Chivonne Harrigal, Winnemucca-based radiologic technician Diane Klassen, and Las Vegas-based interventional pulmonologist Dr. Vishisht Mehta are passionate about increasing high-quality lung screening across the state and have committed their support to the project.
Learn more about the project by emailing Kayla Ramsey, Lung Cancer Screening Program Manager
