title: Current utilities of imaging in grading musculoskeletal soft tissue sarcomas.
abstract: The care of patients with musculoskeletal malignancies has increasingly become a multidisciplinary function. Radiologists play an important role in many areas of these patients' care including initial diagnosis, staging, in many cases guiding therapy, and monitoring treatment response. However, the gold standard for the final diagnosis of these diseases remains the histopathologic proof. Intense efforts have been made to develop non-invasive methods of determining the tumor grade, or a surrogate, in order to predict biologic behavior, aid early treatment decisions, and provide prognostic information. Multiple imaging modalities have been employed in this domain-including computed tomography (CT); anatomic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques; functional MR imaging sequences such as dynamic contrast enhancement (DCE), diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), MR spectroscopy (MRS); and positron emission tomography (PET). This article reviews current available literature in this realm and highlights future directions towards the potential of non-invasive imaging in grading of soft tissue sarcomas.
authors.affiliation: Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States. Electronic address: stephen.fisher@phhs.org.
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.affiliation: Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Joodi
authors.affiliation: Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Ananth J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Madhuranthakam
authors.affiliation: Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Orhan K
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Öz
authors.affiliation: Surgical Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States. Electronic address: avneesh.chhabra@utsouthwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Avneesh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chhabra
mesh_terms: D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: CT; Grading; MRI; PET; Sarcoma