Angiosarcoma of the Breast: Immunohistochemical Demonstration of Steroid Receptors and Literature Review.
A 44-year-old female with bilateral angiosarcoma of the breast with multiple skin metastases is reported. She presented with a 6x8 cm and 1x1 cm mass in her left and right breasts, respectively, and multiple skin lesions around the chest. Histologically, the excised tumor was diagnosed as angiosarcoma of the breast with skin metastasis. Tumor cells were immunohistochemically positive with factor VIII-related antigen, CD34, alpha-smooth muscle actin and vimentin, and positive with UEA-I lectin. The majority of tumor cell nuclei expressed progesterone receptor (PgR) protein but estrogen receptro (ER) protein and androgen receptor (AR) protein were nagative. According to the literature, angiosarcoma of the breast mostly affects females in their fourth (33%) and fifth (40%) decades (mean age, 39.5 +/- 10.7 years). The survival rate depends on tumor size and tumor differentiation. The 3-year survival rate is 86% in patients with a tumor size less than 5 cm, and 90% in well-differentiated group I lesions.
Singh
Y
Department of Surgery and Pathology, Kansai Medical University, 10-15 Fumizono-cho, Moriguchi 570, Japan.
Inoue
K
Kawanishi
H
Hioki
K
Horio
T
Shikata
N
Uemura
Y
T Subura A