Radiology of lung cancer

Papers in the review period have investigated the reasons why radiologists frequently overlook early lung cancers and have demonstrated that the rate at which radiologists falsely categorize a solitary pulmonary nodule as benign, through the use of commercially available CT phantom densitometry is higher than was previously believed. Attempts have also been made to find CT characteristics other than density that may help to distinguish benign from malignant nodules. A number of articles have addressed methods of improving the yield and reducing the pneumothorax rate following needle biopsy of pulmonary nodules. The major role of the radiologist when evaluating patients with known or probable lung cancer is to stage the tumor. The recent literature describing the accuracy of CT and MR imaging in staging lung cancer is also reviewed.