Pulmonary nodule: a comprehensive review and update

The incidental detection of solitary pulmonary nodules and ground-glass nodules has increased substantially with the use of computed tomography as a diagnostic modality and is expected to rise exponentially as lung cancer screening guidelines are more widely implemented by primary care physicians. The lesions should then be classified as low, indeterminate, or high risk for malignancy, depending on the clinical and radiological characteristics. Once classified, these lesions should be evaluated and managed as per expert consensus-based recommendations for performing follow-up computed tomography scans and tissue sampling depending on the pretest probability. When weighing the risks and benefits of further investigations, patient preference and suitability for surgery should be taken into consideration as well.