Differential Diagnosis of Solitary Pulmonary Inflammatory Lesions and Peripheral Lung Cancers with Contrast-enhanced Computed Tomography.

OBJECTIVES:: To clarify differences between solitary pulmonary inflammatory lesions and peripheral lung cancers with contrast-enhanced computed tomography.

METHODS:: In total, 64 and 132 patients with solitary pulmonary inflammatory masses/nodules and peripheral lung cancers, respectively, were enrolled in this study. Their computed tomographic findings were summarized and compared retrospectively.

RESULTS:: Compared with the peripheral lung cancers, the inflammatory lesions were located closer to the pleura (p<0.0001). The majority of the inflammatory lesions were patchy and oval-shaped (82.8%), whereas most of the tumors were lobulated (82.6%). Almost all the inflammatory cases were unclear (93.8%), whereas most of the tumors had spiculated margins (72.7%). Computed tomography values were significantly higher for the inflammatory lesions than for the cancers (p<0.0001). More than half of the inflammatory lesions had defined necrosis (59.3%). Furthermore, 49.2% of the cancers enhanced inhomogeneously, but only 24.6% had ill-defined necrosis or cavities. The peripheral zones of 98.4% of the inflammatory lesions and 72.7% of the tumors were unclear, with peripheral scattered patches (92.2%) and beam-shaped opacity (66.7%) being the most common findings, respectively. Adjacent pleural thickening was more frequent for the inflammatory lesions than the cancers (95.3% vs. 21.1%, p<0.0001), whereas pleural indentation was found in 67.4% of the subjects with cancer. In addition, hilar (p=0.034) and mediastinal (p=0.003) lymphadenopathy were more commonly detected in the cancers than in the inflammatory cases.

CONCLUSIONS:: Contrast-enhanced computed tomography findings for pulmonary inflammatory lesions and peripheral lung cancers were significantly different in many aspects. Developing a comprehensive understanding of these differences is helpful for directing their management.