Schwannoma with angiosarcoma. Report of a case and comparison with other types of nerve tumors with angiosarcoma

BACKGROUND: Schwannoma with angiosarcomatous change is a rare tumor, the clinical characteristics of which have not been analyzed. METHODS: A patient with schwannoma with angiosarcoma arising in the midneck and clinically mimicking a carotid body paraganglioma is described with a literature review of all previously reported cases and a comparison of their clinical features with those of schwannoma with conventional malignant transformation and cases of neurofibroma and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) with angiosarcoma. RESULTS: There are four reported cases, including the present case. Schwannoma with angiosarcoma affects older adults, mainly men. Three tumors arose from the vagus nerve in the neck. Three of the four angiosarcomas were epithelioid in type. Treatment in all cases was surgical resection followed by radiation and chemotherapy in one case and by radiation alone in another. One patient died with residual local angiosarcoma 5 months after the diagnosis. The remaining three patients were alive and disease free at 27 months, 43 months, and 90 months, with distant metastasis (after 15 months) reported only in the patient described in this case report. CONCLUSIONS: Schwannoma with angiosarcoma should be included in the differential diagnosis of presumed carotid body paragangliomas. Like angiosarcoma alone and schwannoma with conventional malignant transformation, but unlike cases of neurofibroma and MPNST with angiosarcoma, the patients are older adults, and there is a male prevalence. Schwannoma with angiosarcoma is capable of local spread with a fatal outcome and of distant metastasis, but follow-up strongly suggests that these patients have a better prognosis than patients with neurofibroma or MPNST with angiosarcoma. Recommended treatment is attempted complete surgical resection followed by radiation therapy and chemotherapy, if it can be tolerated by the patient.