Health Diaries > The Lung Cancer Blog

February 4, 2007

Lung Removal for Incidentalomas Often Unnecessary

Researchers at UC San Francisco say lung cancers that are found incidentally during routine x-rays for other reasons, called "incidentalomas," do not usually require lung removal because they are often smaller than lung tumors found when lung cancer was already suspected.

"Not surprisingly," the investigators write, "patients with incidentally detected lung cancer had smaller cancers and earlier-stage disease." In fact, half of all patients with early disease had lung cancer detected by chance.

Lung removal often unneeded for "incidentalomas"

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