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Vol.50 No.2 contents | Japanese/English |
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- Case Report -
A Case of Angiosarcoma of the Heart with Multiple Metastasis -Review of 30 Reports of Lung Metastasis in Japan-
Maki Miyamoto1, Mikio Takamori1, Kengo Murata1, Akihiko Wada1, Akira Fujita11Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Tama Medical Center, Japan
Background. Primary angiosarcoma of the heart is an extremely rare disease with very poor outcomes in patients with lung metastasis and no established standard chemotherapy. We report a case of angiosarcoma of the heart with multiple metastasis treated with chemotherapy using docetaxel, and radiotherapy. We also review 30 previous reports from Japan on angiosarcoma of the heart with lung metastasis. Case. A 65-year-old man who complained of lumbago, hemoptysis and left leg pain visited a local clinic. Radiological studies demonstrated multiple nodular shadows in both lungs. Computed tomography (CT) revealed multiple nodules in both lungs, liver, left iliac bone, and right atrium. A diagnosis of angiosarcoma was confirmed by a CT-guided needle biopsy of the left iliac bone and surgical biopsy of the right gingiva. The patient was treated with 2 cycles of chemotherapy with docetaxel, immunotherapy with teceleukin, and local radiotherapy. He died on the 80th hospital day from pulmonary hemorrhage. An autopsy revealed poorly differentiated angiosarcoma of the right atrium. Conclusion. While the outcome of angiosarcoma of the heart with lung metastasis is generally very poor (mean survival: 2-3 months), some recent cases have responded favorably to chemotherapy and survived for relatively long periods. We believe that it would be beneficial to accumulate data on chemotherapy and chemosensitivity according to histologic subtypes of angiosarcoma.
key words: Angiosarcoma of the heart, Multiple nodular shadow, Bloody sputum, Chemotherapy, Metastatic lung tumor
Received: June 10, 2009
Accepted: March 5, 2010
JJLC 50 (2): 186-193, 2010
