The solitary pulmonary nodule and staging of lung cancer.

More favorable survival rates are encountered when a bronchogenic carcinoma is identified and resected at the asymptomatic, small, circumscribed, nodular stage. The only two reliable radiologic criteria for benignity are the long-term absence of growth and certain characteristic patterns of calcification. With the advent of computed tomography, the preoperative radiographic staging of non-small cell bronchogenic carcinoma can accurately select those patients for potential surgical care.