Malignant pulmonary and mediastinal tumors in children: differential diagnoses

Conventional chest radiography is the most common imaging procedure in children. When a chest mass is discovered, cross-sectional imaging is often required to accurately localize and characterize the lesion in order to narrow the differential diagnosis. Knowledge of the differential diagnostic possibilities for chest tumors in children is important for both the pediatric and general radiologist because they differ from adults. The more common pediatric, malignant, mediastinal and pulmonary tumors and the characteristic imaging and clinical features that are useful in distinguishing between them are discussed in this review.