Imaging of metastases to the liver

Metastatic disease to the liver is an important disease from the diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic points of view. Different imaging modalities, such as US, CT, scintigraphy, and MRI, have been used for detection, characterization, therapy planning, and follow-up of this disease with variable degrees of success and failure. This review handles the problems which face the different imaging modalities in diagnosis of liver metastases in view of the pathological background of the disease. It also discusses the indications, strong points, and shortcomings of each of the imaging modalities in diagnosis of metastases, and surveys the recent efforts done to improve their performance through the optimization of quality control and in the innovations in the field of contrast agents. Finally, a protocol is suggested for the clinical management of patients with liver metastases to optimize cost-effectiveness of the imaging modalities in this era of multimodality approach in diagnostic imaging. Correspondence to: D. Mathieu