Natural History of Pulmonary Subsolid Nodules: A Prospective Multicenter Study

The multi-institutional prospective study evaluated the behavior of pure GGOs (85%), heterogeneous GGOs (part solid only on CT lung windows; 7%), and part-solid GGOs on soft-tissue windows.   Among pure GGOs, 6.6% advanced to one of the other categories during a mean follow-up period of 4.3 years.  Of the 35 pure GGOs that were resected, none was an invasive cancer.  Invasive adenocarcinoma was identified in only 1% of all nodules, and only among the part solid nodules.