Management experiences of primary angiosarcoma of breast: a retrospective study from single institute in the People’s Republic of China

• Main Authors: Hu QC, Mei X, Feng Y, Ma JL, Yang ZZ, Shao ZM, Yu XL, Guo XM
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2015-11-01
• Series: OncoTargets and Therapy
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/management-experiences-of-primary-angiosarcoma-of-breast-a-retrospecti-peer-reviewed-article-OTT

Qun-Chao Hu,1–3,* Xin Mei,1,2,* Yan Feng,1,2 Jin-Li Ma,1,2 Zhao-Zhi Yang,1,2 Zhi-Min Shao,2,4 Xiao-Li Yu,1,2 Xiao-Mao Guo1,2 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 2Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, 3Department of Radiation Oncology, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Suzhou, 4Department of Breast Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work 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.Conclusion: 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. Keywords: primary angiosarcoma, breast neoplasm, histologic grade, adjuvant therapy