Malignant Conversion of Eyelid Capillary Hemangioma to Cutaneous Angiosarcoma

Abstract

Angiosarcomas represent a rare aggressive malignancy of endothelial cell origin that carry a poor prognosis. Here, the authors report the case of a 71-year-old male presenting with a well-differentiated angiosarcoma of the right upper eyelid which arose at the site of a congenital eyelid hemangioma. The patient had undergone multiple surgical resections of the hemangioma previously without adjunctive radiation therapy. This lends evidence to the potential for malignant transformation of benign hemangiomas, and long-term monitoring of benign cutaneous vascular lesions should be considered.

Pterygium—The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

“…An important indication is that most cancers develop later in life [ 130 ]. There are proliferative disorders such as benign hemangioma that, only on very rare occasions, transform into a malignant counterpart (i.e., angiosarcoma) [ 131 , 132 ], while other lesions, such as gastric mucosal intestinal metaplasia, have a higher risk of resulting in gastric cancer (i.e., 0.25% of the cases) [ 133 ]. For the latter, endoscopic surveillance every 1 to 2 years is needed as follow-up [ 134 ].…”