A Spot On Your Lung Scan Is Not A Death Sentence | World Lung Cancer Day 2026

Almost every week, someone walks into my clinic holding a CT report and bracing for the worst. A “spot,” a “shadow,” a “nodule” has turned up on their lung, and in their mind the word "cancer" has already been written in bold letters. The fear is understandable. It is also, very often, unfounded.

Here is the first thing I tell them: most lung nodules picked up on a scan are not cancer. Many are old scars, healed infections, or harmless clusters that will never cause harm. The job of a pulmonologist is not to assume the worst but to find out the truth quickly and precisely, so that the majority can be reassured and the few who do need treatment can start it early, when the odds are best.

For a long time, that “finding out” was the frightening part. Reaching a small nodule deep inside the lung could mean major surgery simply to obtain a diagnosis. That reality has changed. Today, using EBUS (endobronchial ultrasound), a single, keyhole procedure through the airway can often both confirm whether a growth is cancer and tell us how far it has spread: information that once required a far more invasive operation.

For the small, hard-to-reach nodules sitting in the outer edges of the lung, we now use AI-driven navigation bronchoscopy together with cone-beam CT guidance to steer instruments to the target with millimetre precision, and take a sample without a single cut on the chest.

At CMRI, we are home to the most advanced diagnostic and interventional pulmonology unit in eastern India, equipped with both navigation bronchoscopy and cone-beam CT for nodule sampling. It means patients in our region no longer need to travel elsewhere, or wait in anxious uncertainty, to get an accurate answer. So, this World Lung Cancer Day on August 1, my message is: Do not ignore the shadow on your scan but do not be paralysed by it either. Get it checked, by people who can tell you exactly what it is. In lung cancer, a precise and early answer is the single most powerful thing we have. And that answer is now closer and faster than most people realise.

The writer Dr. Shyam Krishnan is Lead Consultant, Clinical & Interventional Pulmonology, CMRI (CK Birla Hospitals), Kolkata. The facts and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not reflect the views of ETV Bharat.

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