What does angiosarcoma of breast look like?
Secondary angiosarcoma often shows up as an area of redness or a bluish appearance of the breast. There may also be swelling or a mass in the breast. These lumps, unlike many breast cancers, are often painful. In some cases, the first symptoms of angiosarcoma may occur due to the spread of the cancer in the body.
How common is angiosarcoma of the breast?
Angiosarcoma is a very rare form of cancer that represents only 0.1% to 0.2% of all breast cancers. This cancer occurs in the breast and in the skin of the arms, and it begins to develop in the blood or lymphatic vessels in the breast. Angiosarcoma can grow and spread quickly throughout the body.
What is the survival rate for breast angiosarcoma?
Primary angiosarcoma of the breast is associated with a poor prognosis. Its median disease-free survival and OS times are 2.26 years and 2.96 years, respectively; the 5-year OS rate of a localized primary breast angiosarcoma is 50–66% [1, 5].
How do you know you have angiosarcoma?
Angiosarcomas often look like a bruised, purple-ish area on the skin. These areas may bleed easily when they are scratched or bumped. They grow larger over time and the skin around the bruised area can swell. You may have pain in the area where the tumor is growing.
What are the symptoms of breast angiosarcoma?
Symptoms of breast angiosarcoma
- a lump or thickening in an area of the breast.
- a change in the size or shape of a breast.
- dimpling of the skin.
- a change in the shape of the nipple, particularly if it turns in, sinks into the breast, or has an irregular shape.
- a rash or bruising on the breast or nipple.
Can you survive angiosarcoma?
Due to its high aggressiveness and multifocality, the prognosis of angiosarcoma is poor, with a reported five-year survival rate of ~35% in non-metastatic angiosarcoma cases (1,4,6). The majority of cases of recurrence (75%) occur within 24 months of local treatment (1).
What is primary angiosarcoma?
Primary angiosarcoma of the breast is a malignant vascular neoplasm arising within breast parenchyma with or without extension into the skin. It should be considered a different neoplasia from radiation-related AS. The incidence of primary breast angiosarcoma is approximately 17 new cases per million women,,.
Is angiosarcoma curable?
Angiosarcoma is a rare and deadly malignancy originating from the vascular endothelial cells. Surgery is the most effective method to cure this disease, but for metastatic angiosarcoma, a chemotherapy-based treatment is the main therapeutic choice.
How do you stage angiosarcoma?
Staging
- Stage 1 means the cancer is low grade, small (less than 5cm) and has not spread to other parts of the body.
- Stage 2 means the cancer is of any grade, usually larger than stage one but has not spread to other parts of the body.
- Stage 3 means a high grade cancer that has not spread to other parts of the body.