Jingfeng Zhang1, lingxiang Ruan2, Qidong Wang2, and Bingying Lin2
1Dept. of Radiology, 1st Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, People's Republic of, 2Hangzhou, China, People's Republic of
Superficial soft-tissue masses are common in clinical practice, and most of them are solid. The radiological imaging is available to provide more detailed information, which is more helpful to make a diagnosis and differential diagnosis. Additionally, analysis of imaging features is useful in distinguishing between benign and malignant lesions, which can help make a strategy for therapy , such as preoperative planning of the extent of surgery and whether adjuvant chemotherapy/radiotherapy. Lesions that are assigned benign can be followed expectantly, whereas indeterminate or malignant lesions can be subjected to histological evaluation.The location of a solid mass within the superficial tissue is best described as cutaneous (epidermis and dermis); subcutaneous (adipose tissue, nerve tissue, fibrous tissue and vascular tissue etc.); or fascial (overlying the muscle). Cutaneous lesions may arise in association with the epidermis or dermis, and subcutaneous lesions may arise in the adipose tissue, or the fascia overlying the muscle. However, some lesions can invade the cutaneous and subcutaneous tissue simultaneously. For purposes of comprehensive understanding and analysis, it is most useful to categorize superficial soft-tissue solid masses by histology as skin appendage tumors, mesenchymal tumors and metastatic tumors.
