Gingival metastasis of a radiotherapy-induced breast angiosarcoma:  diagnosis and multidisciplinary treatment achieving a prolonged complete remission.
Angiosarcoma is a rare and highly malignant mesenchymal tumor. Similar to other soft tissue sarcomas, it may arise in any organ, although it occurs more frequently within skin structures like the scalp. Angiosarcoma has a characteristic pattern of local and distant relapse involving primary site, regional lymph nodes, and lung. Patients affected by unresectable relapses or metastases have a dismal prognosis with a median overall survival of less than 9 months. We present the case of a 74-year-old woman who previously underwent total mastectomy for a radiotherapy-induced angiosarcoma of the breast. She subsequently developed a rapidly growing gingival tumor lesion that was in fact a unique distant metastasis of her angiosarcoma. In general, surgery is the mainstay of angiosarcoma treatment, and even metastases are aggressively resected whenever feasible. We describe the successful multidisciplinary treatment that avoided a likely mutilating surgery and review the literature regarding primary and metastatic gingival angiosarcoma.
Division of Odontostomatology, Ospedale Umberto I Mauriziano, Torino, Italy.
Alessandro
A
Chiarelli
Paola
P
Boccone
Franco
F
Goia
Marco
M
Gatti
Giovanni
G
De Rosa
Antonio
A
Manca
Danilo
D
Galizia
Massimo
M
Aglietta
Giovanni
G
Grignani
D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005887:Gingival Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000556:secondary*; D006394:Hemangiosarcoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D015413:Mastectomy, Simple / Q000379:methods; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis