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Soft tissue pathology for the radiologist: a tumor board primer with 2020 WHO classification update

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Abstract

Radiologists serve an important role in the diagnosis and staging of soft tissue tumors, often through participation in multidisciplinary tumor board teams. While an important function of the radiologist is to review pertinent imaging and assist in the differential diagnosis, a critical role is to ensure that there is concordance between the imaging and the pathologic diagnosis. This requires a basic understanding of the pathology of soft tissue tumors, particularly in the case of diagnostic dilemmas or incongruent imaging and histologic features. This work is intended to provide an overview of soft tissue pathology for the radiologist to optimize participation in multidisciplinary orthopedic oncology tumor boards, allowing for contribution to management decisions with expertise beyond image interpretation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Norm Cyr for expert photographic and graphic design assistance.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Karin J. Kuhn and Jeffrey M. Cloutier contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Stanford University Medical Center, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA, 94305-5105, USA

    Karin J. Kuhn, Robert D. Boutin & Geoffrey Riley

  2. Department of Pathology, Stanford University Medical Center, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA, 94305-5105, USA

    Jeffrey M. Cloutier

  3. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Stanford University Medical Center, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA, 94305-5105, USA

    Robert Steffner

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  1. Karin J. Kuhn
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  2. Jeffrey M. Cloutier
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Correspondence to Karin J. Kuhn.

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Kuhn, K.J., Cloutier, J.M., Boutin, R.D. et al. Soft tissue pathology for the radiologist: a tumor board primer with 2020 WHO classification update. Skeletal Radiol 50, 29–42 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-020-03567-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-020-03567-w

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