Soft tissue tumors

The goals of radiologic evaluation of soft tissue tumors are: (1) lesion detection, (2) identifying a specific diagnosis or reasonable differential diagnosis, and (3) lesion staging. Imaging of soft tissue tumors to achieve these goals has markedly evolved, improved, and expanded with the advent of computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Indeed, CT and particularly more recently MRI allow lesion detection and staging by delineating anatomic extent in all cases and relatively specific diagnosis in approximately 25%-50% of soft tissue tumors.We would suggest that evaluation of soft tissue tumors is now similar to bone tumors in that pathologic diagnosis should incorporate the imaging findings in the vast majority of cases. This is particularly true in large tumors where only a small amount of tissue may be available for pathologic review initially, and the question arises as to the true representation of the entire lesion. Our purpose is to provide a framework for the systematic approach to radiologic evaluation of soft tissue tumors.While our approach reviews multiple imaging modalities, we emphasize MRI, as it is generally considered the optimal radiologic tool in the evaluation of soft tissue tumors.