Imaging Findings of Adipocytic Tumors

Adipose tissue tumors are the most common soft tissue tumors in both benign and malignant categories. A presumptive diagnosis of the adipose tissue tumors usually can be made based on the imaging findings [5]. However, there are some exceptions. Making differential diagnosis of hibernoma from lipoma-like well-differentiated liposarcoma may be difficult by imaging findings, while the making histological diagnosis is not difficult. Lipoma-like well-differentiated liposarcomas can mimic intramuscular or intermuscular lipomas in radiological as well as histological findings, and they may occasionally cause problems in establishing diagnosis and treatment planning. Although making differential diagnosis of these benign lesions from lipoma-like well-differentiated liposarcomas may be important, it may also be important to make a differential diagnosis between intramuscular lipoma, intermuscular lipoma and hibernoma for appropriate surgical treatment and followup, because differences in recurrence rates among these benign tumors exist. The purpose of this section is to elucidate the differences in imaging features among these adipocytic neoplasms for appropriate treatment planning. The imaging findings of other adipocytic sarcomas are also included.