Desmoid tumour: an angiographic study of five cases

Compared with the frequent reports on the angiographic features of fibrosarcomas only a few similar studies concerning desmoid tumours have been published. Five patients with desmoid tumours and investigated by angiography are reported. The findings were normal in two instances. The forearm tumours of two patients were supplied by unusually large branches of anterior interosseous arteries with normal courses within the tumour. Increased vascularity was seen in these two tumours as well as in a fifth tumour of the buttock. These three tumours behaved more aggressively than the two with entirely normal angiographic appearances. On the basis of the literature and the findings in these five cases there might well exist a positive correlation between the degree of agressiveness of a desmoid tumour and its angiographic features as already established in the case of fibrosarcomas.