Computed tomography-histologic correlations in lung cancer

The multidisciplinary approach is ideal in the management of patients with lung cancer. Multidisciplinary evaluation strengthens the differential diagnosis of aspecific radiological findings, indeed. Notably, the differential diagnosis of early stage lung cancer is a current challenge of CT imaging because the earlier the detection, the lower the accuracy of radiological features. This is particularly true for the most common subtype of lung cancer, adenocarcinoma, because it shows various radiological features. Such variety is also reflected by the 2011 classification of lung cancer, that likely affected the diagnostic agreement between radiologist and clinician. This review discusses the common issues of lung cancer diagnosis by paired radiological-histologic interpretation of CT findings.