Katherine LaNasa is taking her real-life medical journey and channeling it directly into her work.
The 59-year-old actress plays charge nurse Dana Evans on the HBO Max medical drama The Pitt, a role that recently earned her an Emmy in 2025 (and another nomination this year). Off screen, her deep connection to the character comes from her own personal experience with stage I breast cancer.
From Patient to Nurse
After receiving her diagnosis, LaNasa underwent surgery and three weeks of radiation. Roughly six months after wrapping up treatment, she booked her role on The Pitt, where she found herself in a realistic emergency department.
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“It was a little stunning to walk into this big emergency department, this incredibly immersive set, for the first time because I was only about a year since my diagnosis, maybe about six months out of treatment, when I started filming,” LaNasa told People. “It felt very real.”
Instead of suppressing those emotions, she used them to build her character. “I really know what it’s like to feel like that scared patient and to have a really compassionate nurse,” she told the outlet. “The things that they did, the way that they spoke to me, all of those little kindnesses really mattered as a patient. So I was able to put that into Dana and play the nurse that a patient would want.”
How Knowing Her Risk Factors Saved Her Life
LaNasa’s journey with breast cancer began decades before her diagnosis.
“To be honest, I wasn’t a person that liked going to the doctor,” LaNasa said. “But I found out that I had dense breasts in my 30s. So because I had found out about my own risk factors, that was the thing that made me keep getting my screening every year.”
Having dense breasts means there is more fibrous and glandular tissue than fat, according to the National Cancer Institute. This makes it harder for doctors to distinguish “normal” tissues from cancerous ones.
Staying on top of annual checkups paid off — doctors caught her tumor before it spread to her lymph nodes. Now, LaNasa partners with Novartis for their “Your Attention, Please” campaign to encourage other women to stay proactive.
“I really understand how scary it can feel to go do that,” she continued. “It’s super scary. But when you realize that if it’s caught early, there’s a 99% survival rate, that’s really some of the messaging that we’re trying to get out there. Early detection really can save lives.”
