Clinicopathological features of breast angiosarcoma

Background

Breast angiosarcomas are rare neoplasm. Due to its rarity, our therapeutic strategy is extremely limited. Therefore, we investigated the clinicopathologic features and examined the treatment for angiosarcoma compared with some literatures.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective chart and slide review of all patients in our division seen from 1997 to 2012 with a diagnosis of primary or secondary breast angiosarcoma at the National Cancer Center Hospital (Tokyo, Japan).

Results

Nine patients were diagnosed with breast angiosarcoma (six primary and three secondary cases). The median age of patients with primary angiosarcoma was 39 years (range 27–65 years). The median tumor size was 6.78 cm (range 3.0–8.8 cm). In the primary tumor, 4 patients had total mastectomy and 2 had a breast conserving surgery. 3- and 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) of the patients with primary angiosarcoma was 20 and 0 %. 5-year surviving rate of primary angiosarcoma was 50 %. In all patients with secondary angiosarcoma, recurrence was observed in all cases. But one case obtained long-term survival in local control therapy.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrates breast angiosarcoma exhibits high recurrence rates. Tumor size and surgical margin may be important factor to obtain long-term survival. In this point of view, total mastectomy with adequate tumor margin with early detection is desired. In case of recurrence, if it is local, surgery may be potentially curative.