# Fleischner Society guidelines for incidental lung nodules (2017)

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## TL;DR

The Fleischner guidelines tell radiologists what follow-up a small lung nodule found by chance on a CT scan needs, from nothing to repeat scans, depending on its size and type.

## Summary

The Fleischner Society, an international group of thoracic radiologists, lung doctors, surgeons and pathologists, published guidance for solid nodules in 2005 and subsolid nodules in 2013, and combined them in the 2017 revision (MacMahon and colleagues, Radiology). The revision raised the minimum size that needs routine follow-up, gave follow-up intervals as ranges so that radiologists, clinicians and patients can allow for individual risk and preference, merged solid and subsolid nodules into one table, and added advice for multiple nodules.

They apply to nodules found incidentally. Nodules found in a lung cancer screening programme are reported with Lung-RADS instead.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: Fleischner guidelines; Fleischner Society guidelines; Fleischner criteria; Fleischner 2017

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleischner_Society
- MacMahon et al., Guidelines for management of incidental pulmonary nodules detected on CT images: from the Fleischner Society 2017 (Radiology 2017): https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2017161659

## Connected records

- terms: [Lung-RADS and nodule reporting](https://onco.cc/terms/lung-rads/), [Pulmonary nodule](https://onco.cc/terms/pulmonary-nodule/)
- cancers: [Lung cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/lung-cancer/)
- technologies: [CT (computed tomography)](https://onco.cc/technologies/ct/)

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