Table 1.

Characteristics of patients with benign solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs), patients with malignant SPNs, and healthy controls

	Healthy controls	Patients with benign SPNs	Patients with malignant SPNs
No. of subjects	32	45	47
Gender	Male	Male	Male
Age range (median)	39–69 (57)	38–72 (58)	40–79(62)
Active smokers (n)	21	37	39
Nodule size (average)		1.9 cm	2.4 cm
Diagnosis of benign SPNs
Inflammatory lesions		18
Hamatoma		10
Granuloma		8
Others		9
Histological types
Adenocarcinoma			18
Squamous cell carcinoma			29
Cancer stage			I