Computerized tomography in the assessment of soft-tissue neoplasms. Observations in 124 cases (La tomografia computerizzata nella valutazione delle neoplasie delle parti molli. Osservazioni in 124 casi).

In order to evaluate the role of Computed Tomography (CT) in prediction of nature, staging and follow-up of soft-tissue tumors, the authors examined by CT 124 patients with soft tissue neoplasms who later underwent surgery (116 cases) or fine needle biopsy (8 cases). Comparison between CT and surgical or anatomical results showed that CT was able to correctly predict the benignancy or malignancy of the masses in 76% of cases but it was very seldom able to allow an histological prediction. On the contrary CT was found to be a very useful tool for pre-therapeutic staging and follow-up of the tumors, because it gave many diagnostic information which influenced therapeutic choices and strategies.