[Lymph node staging and diagnostic imaging--status quo and future prospects]

Exact lymph node staging is crucial to tumor staging and outcome, as well as therapy planning. Due to the low specificity and sensitivity of current imaging methods, invasive, expansive and uncomfortable diagnostic procedures are still widely used, often in conjunction with imaging. This brief overview is intended to summarize current imaging strategies and to give an outlook on new experimental imaging strategies which may play an important role in lymph node staging.