Imaging in bone sarcomas. the chemotherapist's point of view

The role of imaging in planning oncologic treatment and follow-up of patients with bone sarcomas is dis-cussed in the present article. Tumor staging and radiographic assessment of response to chemotherapy inbone sarcomas may be of difficult interpretation. In particular, the use of the criterion of tumor shrinkageto measure response to chemotherapy is not always applicable in bone tumors where higher calcificationrather than reduction in size is frequently observed. New techniques such as (18)F-FDG PET/CT, dynamiccontrast-enhanced computed tomography or magnetic resonance are now available allowing a moreaccurate staging of patients and adding information for the evaluation of tumor response. Innovativeapproaches aiming to evaluate vascular and metabolic response rather than mono- or bi-dimensionalchanges may be more informative and require further investigations. © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.