Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Neoplasia, Education and training, Cancer, Diagnostic procedure, PET, MR, CT, Thorax, Oncology, Lung
Authors:
D. Tzias, H. J. Cassidy, D. Douraghi-Zadeh, A. Devaraj, A. Nair; london/UK
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2013/C-1007
Background
Primary sarcomas of the thorax are an uncommon differential diagnosis for tumours involving the chest.
Primary thoracic sarcomas arise from soft tissues found in the mediastinum,
lung,
pleura and most commonly the chest wall.
The diagnosis can only be made after a process of exclusion of the more common malignancies such as primary lung cancer and metastasis.
The radiological differences are subtle and eventual diagnosis invariably lies in histological analysis. The principal role of radiology in the management of thoracic sarcomas is to evaluate the extent of disease and to provide guidance as to whether the tumour is resectable.
However,
imaging can also assist in narrowing the differential diagnosis by consideration of tumour location and other radiological features,
which will be reviewed below.