[Cutaneous angiosarcoma arising after radiotherapy treatment of a breast carcinoma. Description of a case and review of the literature].
Cutaneous angiosarcomas occurring as a complication of radiation therapy for breast cancer are rare. To the best of our knowledge 37 cases have been reported in English literature during the last two decades. We describe a case of angiosarcoma arising in the skin of a breast previously irradiated for breast carcinoma. The patient, a 74-year-old woman, had been treated with conservative surgery and radiotherapy for a pT1N0 infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the left breast in 1993. Nine years later a skin lesion, which was interpreted as a recurrence, arose in the same site. A biopsy obtained from the lesion, and initially considered to be negative for cancer, showed istological features consistent with those of the atypical vascular lesion. Seven months later the same lesion transformed in a 5 x 3 reddish mass which at histological examination was diagnosed as an high grad post-irradiation angiosarcoma of the skin of the breast. Data on previously reported post iradiation angiosarcoma of the breast are reviewed; further consideration on differential diagnosis between those lesions and atypical vascular lesions are presented.
Di Tommaso
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Dipartimento di Oncologia, Sezione di Anatomia Patologica Marcello Malpighi, Ospedale Bellaria, Università di Bologna, via Altura 3, 40139 Bologna. ldito2001@yahoo.it
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D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D006394:Hemangiosarcoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008408:Mastectomy; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000175:diagnosis; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000473:pathology*; D016609:Neoplasms, Second Primary / Q000473:pathology*; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery