Compared to computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) only plays a minor role for the imaging of lung cancer. Among the reasons are technical limitations, such as longer acquisition times or inferior spatial resolution, as well as unfavourable tissue characteristics which cause a low signal-to-noise ratio of the lung parenchyma. However, MRI is a valuable tool for staging lung cancer and may in some cases even be considered the method of choice. The following review illustrates the role of MRI for the diagnosis of lung cancer using current MR-techniques. In particular, the potential of MRI for TNM-staging, new technical developments (e. g. parallel MRI), and the application of functional MRI of the chest are described.