title: Successful treatment of a very rare angiosarcoma involving the lumbar spine via en-bloc resection and radiotherapy: case report.
abstract: Angiosarcomas are rare malignant vascular tumors that comprise only approximately 2% of all soft tissue sarcomas. They are mainly located in the head and neck area and spinal involvement is particularly very uncommon, reported only in occasional case reports or as single cases as part of a clinical series. There is therefore limited data in the literature regarding the optimum treatment strategy. Due to the aggressive nature of these lesions total resection is challenging and the overall survival time is short. In this report the authors report the successful management of a 37-year-old male harbouring spinal angiosarcoma involving the L2 level via en-bloc resection and adjuvant radiotherapy. The patient is disease-free at the 4th year follow-up and the radiological investigations are without the evidence of local recurrence, metastasis or implant failure. En bloc resection of spinal angiosarcomas can significantly improve survival and the surgical treatment should aim for this whenever possible.
authors.affiliation: University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Department of Neurological Surgery, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Osman Arikan
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Nacar
authors.forename: Mustafa Onur
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Ulu
authors.forename: Melike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pekmezci
authors.forename: Vedat
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Deviren
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ames
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006394:Hemangiosarcoma / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016268:Internal Fixators; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D013125:Spinal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome