[Breast angiosarcoma. Five case reports]

The authors report 5 cases of breast angiosarcoma collected in the Salah Azaiz Institute of Tunis, the only oncology center in this country, between 1969 and 1990. They enumerated 4,000 malignant breast tumors during this period; i.e. an incidence of 1.25%, higher than that in the world literature (0.4%). The mean age of patients was 44. Three were post-menopausal, and two were of childbearing age, one of whom was pregnant. This rare tumor is virtually limited to women. Affection is scarce, it affect's almost exclusively women. It generally present as a painless, ill-defined mass, without regional lymphadenopathy. The diagnosis of angiosarcoma is difficult since the histologic appearance is sometimes identical to that of a hemangioma. Hence the value of very thorough histologic examination of the entire operative specimen. Treatment is based upon mastectomy. The usefulness of adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy is uncertain. The prognosis remains gloomy despite early diagnosis and treatment. The authors attempt in this study to identify the various features of this serious and uncommon condition, based upon the rare published cases in the world literature.