Angiosarcoma of the breast and pregnancy: a new therapeutic approach

A case of angiosarcoma of the breast managed primarily by a chemotherapeutic approach is referred. A 29-year-old patient presented complaining of a painful mass in her right breast. An incisional biopsy carried out under general anesthesia showed a moderately-differentiated angiosarcoma surrounded by fibrofatty tissue. Ruled out distant metastases, a decision was made to initiate neoadjuvant chemotherapy consisting of ifosfamide, vincristine and dactinimycin. After 2 courses of chemotherapy the tumor volume was reduced by 50% and the histologic examination of the mastectomy specimen revealed a well-differentiated angiosarcoma with widespread areas of necrosis probably produced by previous chemotherapic treatment. The patient is clinically free of disease after 24 months of follow-up. Although this is a single case report, and by no means can be considered a guideline for future treatments, we nevertheless feel that the result obtained with the chemotherapeutic approach with this patient is encouraging.