Lung Nodules Surveillance Question

hi @hercules - as a patient with multiple pulmonary nodules, I can empathize. from what I understand, radiologists will report on the largest few and anything that obviously grew from the last scan. radiation is a legitimate concern, make sure that your dr is ordering low dose CT scans for you. that said, lung cancer is a more immediate danger and should be ruled out. it's good you are following your pulmonologist's advice to rescan now. but without a biopsy, there's no way to know for sure. so that may be a next step - or they may want to wait until the nodules are larger to be able to do that effectively. the not knowing is very stressful, so take good care of yourself as you go through this process. hopefully you'll have some helpful info soon - please keep us posted!

Hi @hercules , How did the CT scan go? Have you received results or talked with your pulmonologist yet?

Hi thank you for asking. I don’t have it until Friday this week. Will post when I find out more. Thank you!

@lls8000 Hello again Lisa, I am just posting an update here to my original post about multiple lung nodules and surveillance. To recap my story for anyone interested... I am a formal smoker, quit age 37 now 54 participating in LDCT scans annually due to high risk from smoking history and a parent who had lung cancer (also was a former smoker) 1st scan (LDCT) Sept 2024 found multiple subcentimeter lung nodules spread out amongst all lobes of my lungs (5 nodules total) All were ground glass, round, smooth margins except one 4.2mm nodule described as spiculated margins. 2nd scan (Regular CT w/o contrast) Feb 2025 stable nodules there was no change. 3rd scan (LDCT) Sept 2025 stable nodules no change, 4th scan (Regular CT w/o contrast) June 2026 stable nodules no change. Recommend re-scan in one year. While I am soooo thankful that everything is stable I am still perplexed by these little boogers and still hope and pray they never grow or turn suspicious. I am thankful for this community of people and will continue to check back and update on my surveillance as I will be monitoring these for quite some time into the future. I am still looking for anyone who has had multiple ground glass nodules who have been following theirs for awhile with the experience that they are benign and stable and continue to remain stable to give me hope and reassurance that these things can be benign and remain so. I will continue to remember everyone here in my prayers and wish you all good health. Thank you!

@mamajite hello, I had my scan today and it showed the nodules are stable and no change from Sept 2025 scan. My pulmonologist said they are still there but that she did not really see anything suspicious or changed from last scan and recommend to re-scan in one year. I am thankful for the stability but still feel anxious about having them and wonder how long have you been following yours and how long will you need to monitor yours for. My understanding from my pulmonologist is ground glass nodules need to be followed longer than solid nodules because if they are cancerous or pre-cancerous they are typically slow to grow. She said for a low risk non smoker this typically means they will be watched for five years but because I am a high risk former smoker with one parent who had lung cancer (also was a former smoker) I should be scanned once a year until I am 80 years old anyway so she seemed to imply the rules of how long to monitor incidental nodules don't apply to me. Of course I will continue to follow all recommendations by my doctors I still look for others who have gone through similar circumstances, former smokers, multiple ground glass nodules that ended up being followed for awhile and stayed benign. My pulmonologist said that she sees nodules all the time that stay benign and never grow or even disappear but everything I read about smoking history, multiple ground glass nodules indicates slow growing cancer. I struggle badly with health anxiety as it is and even though I am grateful for every good scan I am learning to live with scanxiety between scans and trying to find positive stories for hope and encouragement as I go through these periods of surveillance. Many thanks to you for your reply and wishing you good health!