Lung Nodules

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If your provider finds a spot on your lung, it’s easy to jump to worst-case scenarios.

It’s natural to start worrying about things like cancer, surgery and your future when you get news like this. But lung nodules (also called pulmonary nodules) are more common than you think. And most are benign (noncancerous).

Cleveland Clinic’s healthcare providers are here to help ease your mind. We’ll find out why you have these abnormal growths on your lung and treat or manage them so you can stop worrying and get back to enjoying life.

Why Choose Cleveland Clinic for Lung Nodule Care?

High-volume specialty:

Lung nodules are often found by chance when you get an imaging scan for something else. At Cleveland Clinic, we’re experts in monitoring and treating lung nodules — identifying around 200 people with them each week. Meet our team.

Collaborative care:

Your care team will include healthcare providers from different specialties who’ll work together to make sure you get the best, most personalized treatment.

Minimally invasive options:

Our providers use innovative, minimally invasive lung nodule testing and treatments that are safe and can likely reduce your recovery time.

Virtual visits:

Need a quick check-in with your providers? Our virtual visits are a secure, easy way to meet with them from home, work or even when you’re out of town. All you need is an internet connection and a computer, tablet or smartphone.

National recognition:

Cleveland Clinic is a trusted healthcare leader. We're recognized in the U.S. and throughout the world for our expertise and care.

Lung Nodule Diagnosis at Cleveland Clinic

Viral, bacterial or fungal infections, autoimmune diseases, scarring from illness — even air pollution — can cause spots (nodules) to form on one or both of your lungs. Lung nodules rarely have symptoms. So, you don’t often know you have them until they show up on a chest X-ray or CT scan.

At Cleveland Clinic, we take a team approach to confirming your diagnosis and planning personalized treatment. Healthcare providers from different practice areas will surround you with expert care and compassionate support.

Depending on your unique needs, your team could include pulmonologists, surgeons specializing in thoracic surgery, physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

At your first appointment, we’ll do a physical exam and review your chest images to check the size and character of your lung nodules. We’ll talk about the potential risks of nodules, including lung cancer, and answer your questions.

And we may decide to do testing to rule out cancer and find out more about what’s going on inside of your lungs. These tests can include:

Bronchoscopy

This is done under general anesthesia so you won’t feel any pain or discomfort during the procedure. Your provider will put a small tubed-shaped camera down your throat. Once the camera reaches your lung, they’ll use a small, surgical instrument at the end of the camera to snip a sample of your lung nodule tissue. This sample will go to our lab for testing.

CT-guided biopsy

If the nodule is on the outer part of your lung, we may use needle biopsy to get a tissue sample. First, we numb the area with a local anesthetic, so you won’t feel any pain when we take the sample. We’ll use CT images to guide a small needle into the lung nodules and take a tissue sample to send to the lab.

Positron emission tomography (PET) scan

Using radioactive dye (tracer), a PET scan finds diseased cells in your lung. This information can help your provider to find out if your lung nodules are benign or cancerous.

Meet Our Lung Nodule Team

Pulmonologists.
Imaging specialists.
Laboratory analysts.
Thoracic surgeons.

Providers Who Treat Lung Nodules

Locations

Our healthcare providers see patients at convenient locations throughout Northeast Ohio and Florida.

Lung Nodule Treatment at Cleveland Clinic

After your tests, your providers will go over the results with you. Then they’ll recommend treatment options based on your test results, age, overall health, lung cancer risk and your needs and goals.

Active surveillance

If you have low-risk lung nodules, your provider may recommend active surveillance (watchful waiting). This means we won’t treat the spots on your lung but will keep a close eye on them to see if they change over time. Depending on the type of lung nodules you have, your provider might follow up with CT scans for a total of two to five years. At the end of the surveillance, based on your risk factors, you might be eligible for lung cancer screening with yearly low-dose CT scans.

If you’re at high risk for lung cancer, your active surveillance period may be longer and you might have CT scans more often. This extended surveillance can help your provider catch cancer early, when it’s most treatable.

Surgery

We typically avoid surgery for benign lung nodules. But if you have symptoms that are getting in your way — like coughing or trouble breathing — we may do a surgical biopsy to see what’s causing the nodules and possibly remove them to provide relief.

We’ll likely also recommend surgery if testing shows that your lung nodules are cancerous. Your provider will let you know if you qualify to take part in any clinical trials and innovative treatments.

If you need surgery, you’re in good hands. Our highly experienced team will use the latest techniques to make sure you get the best results. Your provider will go over surgery options with you based on the size and location of your lung nodules.

Taking the Next Step

Chances are, finding out you have lung nodules came as a surprise. And now you might have lots of questions and concerns about treatment and what your future will look like. Our experts will help you better understand what having lung nodules means and what the next steps are. We’ll guide you through testing and work with you to decide the treatment that’s best for you.