Primary Angiosarcoma Of the Breast: A Case Report

• Published in: Journal of radiology case reports Vol. 13; no. 2; pp. 15 - 25
• Main Authors: Varghese, Beenu, Deshpande, Pooja, Dixit, Santosh, Koppiker, Chaitanyanand B, Jalnapurkar, Neeti
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States EduRad 01.02.2019
• Subjects: Adult; Breast - diagnostic imaging; Breast - pathology; Breast Imaging; Breast Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Diagnosis, Differential; Female; Hemangioma, Cavernous - diagnostic imaging; Hemangiosarcoma - diagnostic imaging; Hemangiosarcoma - pathology; Humans; Image-Guided Biopsy; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Mammography; Ultrasonography; Breast; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Mammography; Angiosarcoma; Primary; Ultrasonography
• ISSN: 1943-0922; 1943-0922
• DOI: 10.3941/jrcr.v13i2.3449

Primary angiosarcoma of the breast is a rare (0.04% of all malignant breast tumors) and potentially life-threatening disease. Given its variable and non-specific clinical, radiological and pathological presentation, accurate diagnosis is a challenge. Primary angiosarcoma of the breast predominantly occurs in younger patients and it is often overlooked and misdiagnosed at radiology and pathology. To ensure that this aggressive malignancy is not overlooked, radiologists need to be aware of the fact that such tumors may present with non-specific imaging features. We report a case of a 32-year-old female with primary angiosarcoma of the breast presenting with non-specific imaging features. It was initially interpreted as a capillary cavernous hemangioma at histopathology following an ultrasound-guided biopsy. This eventually turned out to be angiosarcoma after a second histopathology opinion was sought in light of the radiology-pathology discordance.