The role of plain radiography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging in sarcoma evaluation.

Imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis, staging, treatment planning, and post-treatment monitoring of bone and soft-tissue sarcomas. Plain radiography should be the initial imaging undertaken for patients who present with pain or a mass that may represent a musculoskeletal tumor. This is especially true of bony lesions, in which plain radiography remains the most specific noninvasive means of determining the aggressiveness of a lesion and establishing a working differential diagnosis.