Are lung nodules cancerous? Here

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.

Pope Leo will undergo surgery in the coming days to remove a lung nodule that was detected during a routine check-up. The 71-year-old said the growth was “well contained” and spotted early.

Lung nodules are small growths found in the spongy tissue of the lungs. They are no more than 3 centimetres in diameter, and can be round or irregularly shaped. Anything larger is referred to as a mass.

Lung nodules are very common. In a study of 10,431 non-smoking (never or former smoking) participants given a chest CT scan in the northern Netherlands, 37.7% of women and 47.5% of men had at least one lung nodule.

In the United States, lung nodules are detected in 31% of chest CT scans.

As imaging technology improves, and scans are performed more often, more lung nodules are likely to be detected.

Older people, those who smoke, people with a family history of lung cancer and those exposed to asbestos are more likely to have lung nodules.

Fortunately, most lung nodules are harmless. Around 95% of lung nodules tend to be benign (non-cancerous), and are instead caused by factors such as infections, immune-related diseases, and genetic abnormalities.

However, in rare cases (3.7–5.5%), lung nodules may represent the early stages of lung cancer.

Sarah Diepstraten is a Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research).

This article was first published by The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

A major challenge for clinicians is deciding which nodules are likely to be harmless (or benign), and which are likely to be cancerous and require removal.