title: Management experiences of primary angiosarcoma of breast: a retrospective study from single institute in the People's Republic of China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Primary angiosarcoma of breast (PAOB) is a rare and highly aggressive malignancy. There is no general agreement on optimal treatments or prognostic factors for this orphan disease. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic features and management experiences of PAOB.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective review of medical and pathologic records of 17 consecutive patients diagnosed with PAOB between January 2000 and February 2014 at FuDan University Shanghai Cancer Center. We evaluated the clinical characteristics, multimodality treatments, and associated clinical outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 16 patients were included in this retrospective study (median age at PAOB presentation 33.5 years, range: 19-56 years). Palpable tumor with or without breast skin ecchymosis presented as the most common initial symptom. All patients underwent surgery with curative intent. Median disease-free survival and overall survival (OS) were 9 months and 13.6 months, respectively. One-year and 3-year disease-free survival rates were 43.8% and 6.3%, with OS rates of 93.8% and 78.1%, respectively. High histologic grade indicated poorer OS by univariate analysis (P=0.01). However, neither adjuvant chemotherapy nor radiotherapy contributed to clinical outcomes in our series.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PAOB is considered as an infrequent breast neoplasm with aggressive characteristics. Histologic grade and early metastasis (within 12 months after diagnosis) are associated with poor prognosis. Regardless of grade, additional benefit was not observed with adjuvant therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Department of Radiation Oncology, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Suzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qun-Chao
authors.initials: QC
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jin-Li
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhao-Zhi
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Department of Breast Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Min
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Li
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Mao
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Guo
keywords: adjuvant therapy; breast neoplasm; histologic grade; primary angiosarcoma