Radiological staging of thoracic and abdominal tumors in childhood

Thoracoabdominal tumors in childhood can arise from all organs and affect c hildren from the neonate to the adolescent. Better prognosis of childhood t umors, due to better biological understanding and improvement of chemothera py, require sufficient radiological staging. Sufficiency in radiological st aging needs modern cross-sectional techniques with high resolution,good ava ilability and lower radiation dose. In general computed tomography (CT) is being used for radiological staging; increasingly MR imaging is being used because of multiplanar imaging techniques. Replacement of invasive techniqu es such as myelography and lymphography and modern cross-sectional techniqu es create painless staging conditions. Nevertheless, scintigraphy will alwa ys be a major examination technique, especially for evaluation of metastase s and postoperative control examinations. The most common thoracoabdominal tumors in childhood and their staging are described.