Sports and Tumors

The June issue of Seminars of Musculoskeletal Radiology is usually published before the Annual Scientific Meeting of the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR). But the COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately caused a cancellation of this year's meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. To fulfill ESSR's educational mission, the society went virtual on June 26 and 27, 2020, with a rerun in July. This year's topics were sports and tumors.

As president of the ESSR annual meeting, I was asked to serve as the guest editor of this issue. This was an honor and also an opportunity to explore new areas of interest. So I asked myself what topics are not covered in depth in the literature that might be of interest in the ongoing debates about the role of new imaging modalities and interventional techniques and how they should be incorporated in sports medicine and tumor management.

The first article, “Ten Commandments for the Diagnosis of Bone Tumors,” is a straightforward call not to underuse radiographs and patient age, and to apply all available information from radiology, pathology, and clinical history before making a diagnosis. These basic commandments and similar ones are important to follow in all fields of radiology.

Then I chose very rapid contact sports that are not discussed very much in the literature: Gaelic sports and team handball. Contact sports can cause many types of injuries, and I chose two controversial topics in musculoskeletal (MSK) radiology: intervention in acute muscle injury and the role of cartilage imaging in athletes.

Two articles cover different aspects of bone stress injuries. Stress injuries of the spine are common in many sports and usually discussed in terms of normal metabolism. The next article in this issue describes bone in the aging athlete and spine and other bone stress injuries in athletes with metabolic disorders or metabolic dysfunctions such as hormonal changes due to overtraining and disordered eating (e.g., in running, cycling, and cross-country skiing), and the female athlete triad and the new male triad.

Authors from both the United States and Europe discuss interventional techniques in sports injuries and tumors. The French group outlines their multidisciplinary approach for the treatment of MSK tumors.

The final three articles in this issue are from the ESSR. The first one is a survey by Snoj et al about the present status of MSK radiology in Europe. The second is editorial notes about a new historical initiative, highlighting European leaders in MSK radiology and the last one starts this initiative, with a tribute to Chr. M.F. Sinding-Larsen.

All the chosen authors impress with their thorough and helpful contributions to this issue. We hope our readers will enjoy reading their contributions.

Publication History

Article published online:
28 September 2020