Are lung nodules serious?

There are more and more patients with lung diseases in modern society, mainly due to serious air pollution and various processed foods in the diet. Once you find symptoms such as physical discomfort, fever, high blood count, etc. in your life, you must seek medical attention in time to avoid the development of lung nodules. Once the disease worsens, it will cause serious conditions such as cancer. So how do we prevent and treat lung nodules?

But everyone must pay attention to this premise: no history of malignant tumors, no other diseases that may affect the lungs, and no clinical symptoms.

For example, there is a patient with gastric cancer who had been undergoing chest X-ray examinations and had no metastasis. Later, a CT scan of the lungs was performed by chance, and several tiny nodules were found. Although these are most likely not metastatic tumors, the treatment of these nodules is not suitable for the following principles.

In addition, for example, if the patient has had a fever before, has a high blood count, and is found to have multiple nodules in the lungs, it is very likely that he has a lung abscess or spherical pneumonia, which does not apply to the following principles.

Only healthy people who accidentally discover multiple lung nodules are suitable for the following treatment principles.

Multiple solid nodules: If all nodules are smaller than 6mm, low-risk groups do not need to be followed up, and high-risk groups will be reviewed after 12 months; for nodules of 6-8mm, the treatment for low-risk groups and high-risk groups is the same, with review in 3-6 months and 18-24 months; for nodules larger than 8mm, the treatment principles are the same as for 6-8mm. However, it is important to carefully analyze the CT features of each nodule, find the most suspicious nodule, and adjust the relevant treatment principles according to that nodule.

Multiple ground-glass nodules or partially solid nodules: for nodules smaller than 6 mm, review every 3-6 months. If stable, review every 2 and 4 years. For nodules larger than 6 mm, review after 3-6 months. Subsequent treatment will be based on the most suspicious nodule.

It can be seen that the treatment principles are similar to those of single nodules, and the size of the nodule is also very important. Basically, for nodules smaller than 6 mm, the possibility of malignancy is very small if the patient is not in a high-risk group. For nodules larger than 6 mm, corresponding analysis and treatment should be carried out based on the morphological characteristics on HRCT and whether the patient is in a high-risk population.

The more partially solid the ground glass nodules are, or the more solid ground glass nodules whose solid components increase during follow-up, the more cautious you should be.