Primary angiosarcoma of the breast: Observations in Asian Indian women

✍ Scribed by Tanuja Shet; Alopa Malaviya; Mandar Nadkarni; Anagha Kakade; Vani Parmar; Rajan Badwe; Roshni Chinoy

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 230 KB
• Volume: 94
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-4790
• DOI: 10.1002/jso.20593

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Background

Primary angiosarcomas of breast are rare tumors, with a fatal outcome.

Material and Methods

We studied histological prognostic factors and c‐kit expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 12 angiosarcomas accessioned at a cancer referral center in India.

Results

All patients had primary angiosarcoma; no case of secondary angiosarcoma was accessioned during the study period. Median age of patients was 24.5 years. Nine patients had intermediate grade tumors, one a well differentiated tumor and three patients had high‐grade tumors. Interesting cases encountered included an epithelioid angiosarcoma and an angiosarcoma arising on the background of a biphasic tumor. Eight patients had lumpectomy, four mastectomy and two patients were given radiotherapy. Of the nine patients (seven type I/II and two high grade) with follow up, eight patients developed disseminated metastases within a year of presentation. The patient with well‐differentiated angiosarcoma also died of metastasis albeit after a longer time. On IHC c‐kit staining was weakly seen in two cases.

Conclusion

Primary angiosarcoma was fatal in young Indian women even in lower grade tumors. The low expression of c‐kit on IHC suggests that targeting this protein for therapy may not be successful in treating these tumors. J. Surg. Oncol. 2006;94:368–374. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.