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To explore differences in the clinical management of men and women in the 5 years after detecting a solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) by chest radiograph or CT in routine clinical practice. We followed up 545 men and 347 women with an SPN detected by chest radiograph or CT in a retrospective cohort of 25,422 individuals undergoing routine thoracic imaging in 2010–2011. We compared the frequency of each management strategy (no further test, immediate intervention or follow up) according to sex by means of chi-squared. We estimated the relative risk of women versus men of having been followed up instead of an immediate intervention using multivariate logistic regression. We compared by sex the time between detection of the nodule and lung cancer diagnosis, the time between diagnosis and death by means of Mann-Whitney U test and the cumulative effective dose of radiation in each management strategy by means of t test. Women were more likely than men to have follow-up rather than immediate intervention (aRR = 1.8, CI 1.3–2.7, p = 0.002), particularly in those who underwent CT (aRR = 4.2, CI 1.9–9.3, p

To assess the risk of lung cancer and specific mortality rate in patients with and without solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN) on chest radiograph and CT. This prospective study included 16,078 patients ≥35 years old (893 of them had an SPN detected with either chest radiograph or CT) and 15,185 without SPN. Patients were followed up for 18 months or until being diagnosed with lung cancer. Risk and mortality lung cancer were calculated in both groups with Poisson regression. In patients with SPN, incidence of lung cancer was 8.3 % (95 % CI 6.0–11.2) on radiograph and 12.4 % (95 % CI 9.3–15.9) on CT. A chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients with radiographs (odds ratio 2.62; 95 % CI 1.03, 6.67) and smoking habit (odds ratio 20.63; 95 % CI 3.84, 110.77) in patients with CT were associated with a higher probability of lung cancer. Large nodule size and spiculated edge were associated with lung cancer on both CT and radiograph. Lung cancer-specific mortality was lower in patients with SPN than in those without SPN (1.73/1000 person-years, 95 % CI 1.08–2.88 vs. 2.15/1000 person-years, 95 % CI 1.25–3.96). The risk of lung cancer for patients with SPN is higher in clinical populations than in screening studies. Moreover, patients with SPN showed lower mortality than those without SPN. • Lung cancer risk is 8 % for SPN detected on routine radiographs. • Lung cancer risk is 12.4 % for SPN detected in routine chest CT. • Smoking, COPD, SPN diameter and edge were predictors of malignancy. • Lung cancer risk of SPN in routine practice seems higher than in screening.

Objective To determine the prevalence of solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) in chest radiology studies and patient’s features associated with malignancy in a non-high-risk clinical population. Methods Patients ≥35 years were referred for thoracic imaging in two hospitals (2010-2011). Eight radiologists determined the presence and characteristics of SPN. Selected variables were collected from radiological register and medical records. Observer agreement in the diagnosis of SPN was assessed. Results 25,529 patients were included: 23,102 (90.5 %) underwent chest radiograph and 2,497 (9.5 %) a CT. The prevalence of SPN was 2.1 % (95 % CI 1.9 – 2.3) in radiographs and 17.0 % (95 % CI 15.5 – 18.5) in CT. In patients undergoing chest radiograph, detection of SPN with an irregular border was more frequent among smokers. In patients who had a CT, larger SPNs appeared to be associated with 60 years of age or over, diagnosis of a respiratory illness, or male gender. In addition, an irregular border was also more common among men. Conclusions The prevalence of SPNs detected by both radiograph and CT was lower than that shown in screening studies. Patient characteristics such as age, sex, respiratory disease, or smoking habit were associated with nodule characteristics that are known to be related with malignancy. Key Points • There is a lower SPN prevalence in the clinical population than in screening studies. • SPN prevalence is associated with some patient characteristics: sex, age, imaging test. • Nodule characteristics related to malignancy were associated with some patient characteristics.