These results indicated that GGO patients, especially young patients, had a unique disease spectrum and biological behaviors, which require special management.37 Reportedly, EGFR mutations correlated with poor prognosis in subgroups of resected early-stage lung cancer.38–40 Given our findings, we propose that age at diagnosis is an appropriate clinical feature for determining whether to use gene detection methods for GGO patients. This evidence concerns the gene EGFR and lung carcinoma.