Neck Imaging Reporting & Data System (NI-RADS™)

NIRADS_320Neck masses, especially in the setting of previous treatment for head and neck cancer, can be very complex to interpret.

There is no standardization of optimal upfront imaging, surveillance algorithms, or management recommendations.

In response, ACR formed a committee with two goals:

  1. Produce a lexicon to describe neck masses on CT, PET and MRI. Descriptive terms will be chosen after a literature review to maximize the ability to distinguish benign from malignant masses in two clinical scenarios:
    • Patients with a new neck mass
    • Patients with known head and neck cancer undergoing imaging surveillance
  2. Based on this lexicon, develop a standardized Neck Imaging Reporting and Data System (NI-RADS) risk stratification system to inform practitioners about which neck masses warrant biopsy in two clinical scenarios:
    • Patients with a new neck mass
    • Patients with known head and neck cancer undergoing imaging surveillance

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Neck Imaging Reporting and Data System (NI-RADS) by American College of Radiology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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Contact us: rads@acr.org

NI-RADS Current Releases

Training and Educational Resources


Head & Neck Cancer Surveillance Imaging: ACR NI-RADS


Surveillance Imaging for Head and Neck Cancer: The Rise of NI-RADS


Related Resources


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For inquiries, please contact us at RADS@acr.org.