title: Soft tissue sarcoma: preoperative and postoperative imaging for staging.
abstract: Soft tissue sarcoma (STS) management requires accurate tumor imaging for staging, treatment planning, and clinical follow-up. Careful preoperative planning may prevent poor primary resections that place the patient at risk for more operations, local recurrence, and worse survival. Although MRI may be preferred for extremity STS, contrast-enhanced CT is an excellent alternative, with no decrease in ability to plan the operative strategy for limb-sparing resection. In retroperitoneal and other intra-abdominal STS, double (oral/intravenous) contrast-enhanced CT evaluates for liver metastases, defines surrounding vital structures that might be resected en bloc, identifies margins at risk for local recurrence, and shows surrounding organs at risk for toxicity during radiation therapy. Postoperative clinical follow-up and imaging must continue even beyond 5 years because of the continued risk of long-term relapse.
authors.affiliation: Section of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, 301 Kracke Building, 1922 7th Avenue South, University of Alabama-Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
authors.forename: Ching-Wei D
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Tzeng
authors.forename: J Kevin
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Heslin
mesh_terms: D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011182:Postoperative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000379:methods*; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed