With the changes in the disease spectrum and the advancement of examination technology, the detection rate of multiple primary lung cancers (MPLC) is gradually increasing when multiple nodules and masses in the lung are examined clinically. MPLC has significant distinction with other types of lung diseases or lung cancers in the treatment and prognosis. In most cases, patients would be recommended to undergo the surgery as soon as possible which means that the accurate diagnosis should be made before surgery or during treatment. The newly developed molecular and genomic methods are more likely to better determine the relationship between multiple lesions. Artificial intelligence can be used as a related diagnostic aid to show more accurate and objective results in the diagnosis of multiple pulmonary nodules. This review summarizes the latest MPLC diagnostic research (including pathological analysis, imaging), analyzes surgical treatment methods, and looks forward to the future research direction of MPLC diagnosis and treatment, in order to provide reference for MPLC research.