Which factor does NOT place a patient in high risk for lung malignancy?

Determining the risk factors for lung malignancy is crucial for patient assessment and management. Non-smoker status is a significant protective factor against lung cancer. While smoking is the leading cause of lung malignancy, non-smokers have a considerably lower risk of developing lung cancer compared to smokers.

The other options highlight factors that are associated with an increased risk of malignancy. For example, individuals over the age of 35 are at a higher risk due to the cumulative effects of potential carcinogenic exposures, including lifestyle factors and environmental influences. A solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) larger than 3 cm is often considered to have a higher likelihood of being malignant, making it a critical size threshold in the evaluation of lung nodules. The presence of calcifications in a nodule can be indicative of benign processes in some cases, but the overall assessment of nodules considers size and risk factors heavily when determining the likelihood of malignancy. Thus, non-smoker status stands out as the factor that does not place a patient at high risk for lung malignancy.