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Imaging in patients with cancer of the extracranial head and neck

Department of Radiology, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LP, UK

Summary

• Clinicians and radiologists should be aware of the limitations of each other's staging methods.
  
• MRI and CT are complementary techniques for head and neck cancers.
  
• Scanning protocols for staging vary considerably depending on the anatomical site of the primary tumour.
  
• Nodal metastases are diagnosed predominantly on size criteria, although shape and enhancement characteristics can be useful.
  
• Developing techniques include magnetization transfer imaging, proton MR spectroscopy, FDG positron emission tomography and thallium-201 SPECT.