Angiosarcoma of the skull.Report of a case and review of the literature

An osteolytic lesion of the frontal skull that bled profusely at biopsy proved to be a highly anaplastic angiosarcoma. Follow-up roentgenograms showed invasion of the tumor into adjacent diploic spaces. Over a period of 6 weeks, 6,000 rads were delivered to the lesion in 34 treatments. When the lesion and surrounding skull and scalp were removed 7 months later, no neoplastic tissue remained. A review of reports of other angiosarcomas of the bone (18 cases) showed that these tumors attack at any age, can affect any bone, metastasize freely, and carry a poor prognosis. From these few reports, the best treatment is probably combined radiation therapy and radical removal.