Internal medicine

Radiology

Pathology

Lung cancer screening

Pulmonologist

Biology

Stage (stratigraphy)

Intensive care medicine

Paleontology

Medical physics

Biopsy

Lung

Lung cancer

Nodule (geology)

Bronchoscopy

General surgery

Pulmonologists

Medicine

Annals of Thoracic Medicine

<br>In daily clinical practice, radiologists and pulmonologists are faced with incidental radiographic findings of pulmonary nodules. Deciding how to manage these findings is very important as many of them may be benign and require no further action, but others may represent early disease and importantly early-stage lung cancer and require prompt diagnosis and definitive treatment. As the diagnosis of pulmonary nodules includes invasive procedures which can be relatively minimal, such as bronchoscopy or transthoracic aspiration or biopsy, but also more invasive procedures such as thoracic surgical biopsies, and as these procedures are linked to anxiety and to cost, it is important to have clearly defined algorithms for the description, management, and follow-up of these nodules. Clear algorithms for the imaging protocols and the management of positive findings should also exist in lung cancer screening programs, which are already established in the USA and which will hopefully be established worldwide. This article reviews current knowledge on nodule definition, diagnostic evaluation, and management based on literature data and mainly recent guidelines.<br>

Lung nodules: A comprehensive review on current approach and management