Lymph node involvement in secondary breast angiosarcoma – a case presentation

Abstract

Angiosarcoma represents a group of rare tumors originating from vascular and lymphatic endothelial cells, characterized by marked aggressiveness, rapid growth and poor clinical outcome. The incidence of breast angiosarcoma accounts for approximately 0.05% of all malignant breast tumors and less than 1% of all sarcomas. In this article, we report the case of a 67-year-old female patient who presented to our Clinic due to a rapidly evolving, non-painful, vegetating mass, encompassing almost her entire left breast. Imaging studies revealed diffuse skin thickening in all quadrants and an intensely opaque axillary lymph node (LN). Interestingly, the patient had prior medical history of breast carcinoma treated conservatively in 2007 with limited breast resection and left axillary lymphadenectomy, followed by post-operative chemotherapy and radiotherapy. At the current presentation, we performed a radical mastectomy with ipsilateral lymphadenectomy. The histopathological examination revealed a secondary angiosarcoma with LN involvement mimicking an atypical vascular lesion. In this article, we report the clinicopathological particularities of this case and discuss the challenge of diagnosing LN involvement in angiosarcoma.