Lesion: Meaning in a Radiology Report

Lesion

Also written as: abnormality, focus, foci, area of abnormality

A lesion is any area that looks different from the normal tissue around it. It is a general word and does not mean cancer by itself.

Seen on: Any scan

How it reads in a report

A 6 mm nonenhancing T2 hyperintense lesion in the right frontal white matter is unchanged from the prior MRI.

What it means

Lesion is one of the broadest words in medicine. It covers almost anything that changes the normal look of a tissue. That includes a cyst, a scar, inflammation, a harmless growth, an abnormal blood vessel or a tumor. Radiologists often use it to describe a spot before saying what it most likely is, or when they cannot yet tell.

When it matters

The word itself says nothing about whether something is harmful. The details around it do: size, shape, edges, what it contains, whether it takes up contrast dye, and whether it has changed since older scans. Many lesions, such as simple cysts or small scars, need no action. Others are watched with repeat imaging, and a few need a biopsy, a small tissue sample, to find out what they are.

Questions to ask your doctor

What do you think this lesion most likely is?
Which features of the lesion are reassuring, and which need checking?
Has it changed compared with any older scans?

General information, not medical advice. What a finding means for you depends on your symptoms, your history and the images themselves, so talk your results through with a doctor.