What Causes Nodules in the Lungs?
- Benign lung nodules are usually caused by wounds on the lungs that have healed. These wounds can come from fungal or bacterial infections, cysts on the lungs, hematoma or vascular abnormalities. Cancerous lung nodules can be caused by factors that lead to lung cancer. They may also be caused by cancer that has spread from another area of the body.
- Histoplasmosis is a contagious disease caused by a fungus that grows in dirt and other warm, moist places. Symptoms of histoplasmosis include fatigue, fever, chills, cough and headache. You may feel like you have the flu and the condition will leave wounds on your lung that heal and become lung nodules.
- Tuberculosis is a contagious, infectious disease that enters your body when you breathe. The disease typically settles in the lungs but can move into the joints, nervous system, bones and other parts of your body. Symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, weight loss, night sweats, and a lingering cough that may produce blood. Tuberculosis can leave wounds that become lung nodules.
- Nodules in the lungs can be caused by smoking or other lung cancer-causing agents. Lung nodules can also be caused by cancer that is affecting another part of your body. That cancer can cause a secondary metastasized cancer in the lungs. Lung nodules that develop as a result of lung or other cancer become cancerous themselves and need surgical treatment.
- Lung nodules are usually non-cancerous and don't need to be treated. Cancerous lung nodules are surgically removed. With video-assisted thorocoscopic surgery, a doctor will insert a device into the lungs that is used to pull lung nodules out of the body. Thoracotomy is an invasive surgery in which the portion of the lungs with nodules is removed. A mini-thoracotomy is minimally invasive and is used to remove only the lung nodules.