Low-dose administration of oral pazopanib for the treatment of recurrent angiosarcoma

Conflict of interest: the authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Angiosarcoma is an aggressive tumour, characterized by a rapid and fatal course.1 Pazopanib, a multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), has been shown to be effective in patients with angiosarcoma.2,3,4 Although an advantage of pazopanib is that it can be administered orally, unlike taxanes (currently the standard chemotherapy regimen for angiosarcoma), the frequency of hypertension as an adverse event of pazopanib administration (800 mg/day) is relatively high (approximately 40%).4 We report two cases of recurrent angiosarcoma successfully treated with low‐dose pazopanib. Patient 1 was an 88‐year‐old man, who had undergone excision and 70 Gy of electron radiation therapy for angiosarcoma of the scalp 2 years previously (Fig. 1a), as well as excision of metastatic angiosarcoma of the right parotid gland 3 months prior to presentation. He presented with a 2‐month history of nodules and purpura on his right cheek (Fig. 1b). He was undergoing treatment for hypertension with amlodipine 10 mg, therefore we started him on oral pazopanib 400 mg/day, which is half the dose of the regular regimen. The recurrent lesion disappeared after 4 weeks (Fig. 1c).