Magnetic resonance imaging is a vital part of the initial staging and ongoing management of connective tissue tumours. It appears that currently, over 60 million MRI scans are performed annually, indicating the widespread uptake of this phenomenally powerful technology.
This monograph presents the first (to my knowledge) comprehensive text on the use of MRI in the diagnostic imaging of connective tissue tumours. It has almost 3000 images of benign and malignant tumours, or diseases which may form part of a reasonable differential diagnosis. It is curious how much of the diagnosis of sarcomas (and related diseases) depends on the imaging data; integration of the clinical presentation, imaging and pathology is now regarded as essential in any diagnostic work-up of a potential sarcoma. Indeed, I would have liked to have seen a summary statement in this text, to the effect that multidisciplinary integration is a vital part of care of patients with sarcomas.
While the richness of the images is a strength, the book is presented as a series of sometimes overwhelming tables. For example, the tables on the incidence of various tumours is both comprehensive, but also curiously inconclusive, as marked (and unexplained) differences in incidence are reported from US and European sources.
Minor quibbles aside, this text is likely to provide an excellence reference for the training sarcoma radiologist and others with a passionate interest in this field.