Figure 1
Gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted spin echo images in a patient with a lower lip squamous cell carcinoma. The mass is centred on the mental foramen in the axial plane (A, arrowheads) and grows along the inferior alveolar nerve, a major branch of the mandibular nerve, reaching the other end of the mandibular canal, extending in the masticator space (B, arrow), without causing any visible mandibular bone destruction. Further extension is seen in the coronal plane along the mandibular nerve (C, arrow) through foramen ovale into the cavernous sinus (C, arrowheads). Atrophy of the muscles of mastication is seen, for example, at the level of the masseter muscle (B, asterisk).