Highlights the rare but severe risk of secondary angiosarcoma following radiotherapy for breast cancer.
Alerts to aggressive radiation-associated angiosarcoma; single case leaves open optimal surveillance strategies.
Angiosarcoma is a rare malignant neoplasm, accounting for 1–2% of all sarcomas. The main cause of developing secondary angiosarcoma is radiotherapy. We analysed the case of a 52-year-old woman with breast cancer, who had undergone breast-conserving therapy. Four years after finishing treatment, she was diagnosed with secondary angiosarcoma in the irradiated area. The patient underwent a mastectomy. The disease relapsed six months after the operation in form of local recurrence, as well as liver and lung metastases. The patient’s condition gradually deteriorated despite treatment (chemotherapy and symptomatic management). The patient died due to cardiorespiratory failure nine months after the diagnosis of secondary malignancy.
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Kidrycka et al. (2019) studied this question.
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