[Malignant cutaneous hemangioendothelioma. Clinicopathological and ultrastructural aspects (author's transl)]

Malignant cutaneous angio-endothelioma are tumors which develop from vascular endothelium. This is a study of one case along with the data compiled from 118 previously published cases. Clinically, this rare tumor is chiefly seen before the age of twenty of after sixty. Its appearance is polymorphic and often misleading. The clinical course of this disease in adults is always fatal, however, in children 20 p. 100 of the cases are reported curable. The histological picture shows a polymorphic pattern associated with vascular channels anastomosing in a plexiform network with large lacunae surrounded by papillary vegetations and plaques of fusiform, sarcomatoid cells as well as areas of angioblastic secretory cells. The ultrastructural study confirms that the tumor originates from endothelial cells which have lost their capacity to cover the capillary walls.