The incidence of lung cancer has ranked first among malignant tumors, and in recent years, more and more people are found to have nodules in their lungs during medical checkups, and many people wonder if they are suffering from lung cancer? In this regard, Professor Xu Lin pointed out in an interview that there are benign and malignant lung nodules, among which benign nodules account for 70%-80% and about 20%-30% of small non-calcified lung nodules are precancerous lesions, therefore, not all lung nodules need to be surgically removed. Most small nodules on the lung are benign Prof. Xu Lin introduced that 2/3 of the patients treated by thoracic surgery belong to early lung cancer, basically precancerous lesions or carcinoma in situ detected by low-dose spiral CT during physical examination, and most small nodules on the lung are within 2 cm, and there are often even patients who come to see the doctor with less than 1 cm. When lung nodules are within 2 cm, most people have no symptoms. If they have persistent cough, blood in sputum, or feel chest pain, the disease should be in the middle or late stage. Professor Xu Lin said that the United States has included low-dose spiral CT screening for early-stage lung cancer in health insurance, and the clinical cure rate for lung cancer within 2 cm is more than 80%. Therefore, it is recommended that people over the age of 45, or those at high risk with a family history of the disease, be able to have low-dose spiral CT screening for early lung cancer once a year. ”Don’t be too scared when lung nodules are found,” said Professor Xu Lin, adding that 70-80% of lung nodules are benign and only 20-30% of non-calcified lung nodules will be precancerous. Differential diagnosis of lung nodules is a very important task for clinicians. Benign lesions of pulmonary nodules include infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and fungal infections, inflammatory diseases such as rheumatic immune diseases, pulmonary edema, pulmonary fibrosis, etc. We are a large country with tuberculosis, and some people have been infected with tuberculosis without developing it, but these people may be left with hard nodular lesions in the lungs, and such nodules are common during chest radiographs. Alert to GGO which is more common in women It can be said for sure that smoking is still the primary risk factor for lung cancer, however, Professor Xu Lin told reporters that non-smoking lung cancer is more common in women, in the 1980s and 1990s, 8 out of 10 lung cancer patients were men, and now the ratio of men to women is half, the reason for this phenomenon is mainly because women inhale more fumes when cooking, even non-smoking women Even non-smoking women, usually encounter the pollution of second-hand smoke. In addition to smoking, various kinds of pollution should not be ignored, such as air pollution, including room decoration pollution, car exhaust pollution, barbecue food pollution, etc., is also a risk factor for lung cancer. In particular, Prof. Xu Lin pointed out that a special type of lung lesion that is now highly prevalent in the Asian population deserves attention, which appears as ground glass-like density shadow (GGO) on CT, which is more common in female patients, and a significant portion of them are early-stage lung cancer, which is more dangerous than solid nodules. However, such nodules develop very slowly, and some of them even remain unchanged for many years. Therefore, it is important not to have too much psychological pressure when it is found, and treatment should be tailored to the specific situation. How to confirm the diagnosis from small nodules to lung cancer. How to deal with small lung nodules? According to Prof. Xu Lin, benign lung nodules usually grow slowly. If a small nodule is around 0.5 cm (a non-calcified nodule in the lung, different from the calcification point left by old tuberculosis foci), then observation should be the main focus and CT should be rechecked once in 3-6 months and insist on follow-up, usually for 3 years, and annual physical examination if there is no change afterwards. If a nodule grows from 0.5 cm to 0.8 cm in a few months, and there is a tendency of gradual increase, it is important to consult a specialist whether to do a minimally invasive thoracoscopic resection, which is currently able to both confirm the diagnosis and play a therapeutic role. What steps are needed from small nodules to confirmed lung cancer diagnosis is a question that many readers wonder about. Prof. Xu Lin explained that if a small nodule is still growing after the preliminary observation, when the doctor highly suspects that the nodule is lung cancer, the first step will be anti-inflammatory treatment, “since some small lung nodules look like present cancer, but once the anti-inflammatory treatment disappears, then this is a transient nodule and lung cancer is excluded”, said Xu Lin. The next step is minimally invasive surgery, which can confirm the diagnosis of benign or malignant in 20 minutes, and the final diagnosis will be available after 7 days.