What are my chances of a nodule on my lung being cancer? 54 years, nonsmoker.

Need further eval: In us, the age-adjusted incidence rate for lung cancer in never smokers aged 40 to 79 years ranged from 11 to 14/ 100, 000 person-years for men and 15 to 21/100, 000 person-years for women. The lung nodule could be a benign granuloma but could also be cancerous. How big it is? Please discuss with your oncologist for further evaluation- i.e. A pet scan &/or a ct guided biopsy may need to be done

Unless these is an: Obvious cause (tb, histoplasmosis, other fungi), this is a cause for removal at any age. One can wait and watch for change in size, assuming it is small to start, but the reason to remove is because even small cancers can metastasize, and letting a cancer dwell with that risk is not reasonable. There are less invasive means of removal today. A negative aspirate does not rule out cancer.

Size and growth rate: Lung nodules in the lung — are quite common. They appear as round, white shadows on a chest x-ray or computerized tomography (ct) scan. They're usually about .2 inch to 1 inch in size. A nodule that's 25 mm or larger, is more likely to be cancerous than is a smaller one. If prior image is available comparing sizes to assess the rate of growth will help. Cancer grows faster.

Lung cancer malignan: If you were a smoker the chances of this nodule being malignant would be much higher. However there is a rising incidence of non smokers developing lung cancer, particularly women with a type of lung cancer called adenocarcinoma. Have it checked out by a lung specialist. Try to find any old chest x-rays for comparison.