For most types of cancer, there are early detection screenings. All have been proven to catch cancer early, and help save lives. For lung cancer, early detection is still being studied.

If CT scan is approved for routine screening, it'll prove to be the easiest, quickest and most comfortable of all cancer screenings.

It's quit to live: early detection for lung cancer.

Lung Cancer claims more lives than any other cancer in part because there are no routine screenings to detect the disease. The CT scan is currently under study. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Genesis are both a part of that study right now and it is technology that is in use with Genesis.

But how easy is it? We wanted to see for ourselves, so, with the help of a volunteer, we headed to Radiology Group Imaging Center.

"Bring your arms up over your head, rest them right on the pillow -- the machine will talk to you and tell you when to hold your breath and when to breathe. This will only take about two minutes," says the technician to our volunteer, Marion Meginnis.

She's the President and General Manager of News Channel 8. A 28-year smoker who just quit this past August, Marion explains why she wanted to volunteer for this test.

"My mother, who is 81-years-old was diagnosed with lung cancer in June and she had never smoked a cigarette in her life. I knew when I went back I could never be smoking again. I didn't want my mother to worry about me."

She goes on to say, "to be able to go back to her, perhaps and say, Mom, I got the best test that I could get and I just want you to know I'm okay."

"Take a deep breath and hold it," the machine tells Marion as she lays on a pillow, hands above her head.

As Marion is scanned, technicians watch the images come up on a computer screen immediately.

"And breathe," the machine tells Marion. 

In a little over one minute, the CT scan is finished, having made two passes and scanning Marion's lungs twice. She did not have to take her clothes off. There was no poking or prodding. It is a minimally invasive procedure.

Marion even comments that the machine is more open than an MRI.

"All right Marion, we're all finished. That's all there is to it," she's told. 

At this point, Marion is free to leave the office and continue on her day. In and out of the Radiology Group Imaging Center in less than 30-minutes.

But the work for radiologists isn't done.

Within minutes of Marion's CT scan, the images are sent through the computer system to Dr. Jeff Goree who can already take a look and read what's on the screen.

Dr. Goree knows what the CT scan can accomplish.

"It definitely has potential to help early detection of lung cancer and hopefully improve patient survival down the road," he says. 

As for Marion's scan?

"She doesn't have anything that jumps right out as an abnormal finding to worry about. But there are some changes on her lungs that are going to require follow-up in about a year," Dr. Goree says.

But he does point out the ravages smoking has taken on her lungs.

"You get these little areas of damage," he says, pointing to spots on the image.

To the untrained eye, there are white spots, and darker areas. Then, very hard to see, black spots.

"The white spots are blood vessels but the very very black spots next to the blood vessels are areas of lung destruction from smoking," he points out.

"This is the rib and then right there at the tip of my finger, that's a nodule," Dr. Goree points out.

Not a definite cancer, it is something he says Marion will want to check out in about a year, to see if it's changed.

"Anyone who has a small nodule -- that has a low risk or early stage cancer, and we're not absolutely sure what it is -- then we have time to follow it and that's what a CT scan does, it buys you the luxury of time," says Dr. Richard Sadler.

He says that luxury of time allows a patient to make more thoughtful decisions later. In the worse case scenario, any nodule that turns out to be cancer would allow doctors to remove it earlier, prolonging live.

"Any smoker who has a nodule should be concerned. But the flip side of that, they should be relatively happy and grateful in that if there is a nodule it would be small and it could be followed. This is the whole point. The idea that if we dot he scan and if you have a cancer, it's caught while it's curable," Dr. Sadler says.

So just who should have a CT scan for lung cancer detection and how much does it cost?

We have the life-saving answers. Dr. Sadler says they're working on a mathematical equation. Right now, according to the Radiology Group's fact sheet, it's recommended for:

• anyone over 50,
• who currently smokes or is a former smoker,
• quit less than 10 years ago or
• has a 20-pack-a-year history.

Dr. Sadler says some studies are testing requirements for people over 55, who have a 10 pack year history.

That pack year history is an equation of:

(Number of packs per day) x (Number of years smoked) = pack/year history

This means a 10 pack year history equals 1 pack a day for 10 years, half-a-pack a day for 20 years.

The cost of a CT scan for lung cancer detection is $295 at Radiology Imaging Center. Dr. Sadler says that is baseline cost, they are not making a profit. They're doing it to try and save your life.

His internet search found imaging centers around the country charging $500 dollars and more for a CT scan.

Most insurance companies do not pay for the scan as a screening tool -- at least not yet, but Dr. Sadler says $295 for a scan, to be taken every two to three years if it's clear, is well worth the price to save your life.

Still, Dr. Sadler says the number one way to prevent lung cancer is not to smoke in the first place.

If you do smoke, you need to quit.

We want to thank Radiology Group Imaging Center, Dr. Goree with Radiology Group, Dr. Sadler and of course our patient all for helping us with Quit to Live, Early Detection for Lung Cancer.