title: Angiosarcoma of the breast.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Angiosarcoma of the breast is a rare entity. The objectives of this study were to evaluate prognostic factors and determine outcomes in a large contemporary series of patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical and pathologic factors were analyzed in all patients with angiosarcoma of the breast treated between 1990 and 2003. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were estimated using the methods of Kaplan and Meier. Multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate prognostic factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-five women with angiosarcoma of the breast were identified. The median age was 49.1 years, and the median follow-up time was 3.7 years. The median OS and DFS were 2.96 years and 2.26 years, respectively. For the 32 patients with primary angiosarcoma of the breast 5-year OS was 59%. Twenty-three (42%) patients had received prior radiation therapy for the treatment of breast cancer. These patients with radiation therapy-associated angiosarcoma were on average 30 years older and less likely to present with distant metastatic disease than patients presenting with radiation-naive angiosarcoma of the breast. Although radiation-naive patients appeared to have had better early DFS and OS, the Kaplan-Meier curves were not statistically different between patients with radiation therapy-associated disease and radiation therapy-naive patients. On multivariate analysis, tumor recurrence (P = 0.006) was the only significant adverse prognostic factor noted for OS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this series of 55 patients with angiosarcoma of the breast, radiation therapy-naive angiosarcomas occurred in younger patients, but they behaved similarly to radiation therapy-associated angiosarcomas.
authors.affiliation: The Multidisciplinary Sarcoma Center, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, 77230, USA.
authors.forename: Stephan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Vorburger
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Kelly K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.forename: Gregory E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Lakin
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Benjamin
authors.forename: Barry W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Feig
authors.forename: Peter W T
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Pisters
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Ballo
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trent
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burgess
authors.forename: Shreyaskumar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Raphael E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Pollock
authors.forename: Janice N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Cormier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006394:Hemangiosarcoma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008408:Mastectomy / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D016019:Survival Analysis