Hemangiosarcoma

Angiosarcoma is a sarcoma, that is a malignant tumor of the supporting and connective tissue emanating from the endothelium of blood vessels. It is one of the malignant vascular tumors. If the swelling of blood vessels from, this is called a hemangiosarcoma in lymphatic vessels of a Lymphangiosarcoma.

Occurrence

Angiosarcoma come in both men and women about equal frequency, increased with age. They can develop anywhere, but occur most commonly in the skin, connective tissue in the breast, liver, and spleen. In domestic dogs, hemangiosarcoma are located in about half of cases in the spleen, almost a quarter in the right atrium, 14% in the subcutaneous tissue and 10% in the liver.

Angiosarcoma developed more in irradiated tissue after radiotherapy. You can also occur as Lymphangiosarkome of the lymphatic vessels, almost always as a result of chronic lymphedema, how can it remain after breast cancer and other cancers ( Stewart -Treves syndrome). This produces flat changes and bleeding node from which ulcers may develop. Diagnosis, therapy and prognosis are analogous to the angiosarcomas of blood vessels.

Haemangiosarcomas can develop, for example, by exposure to thorium dioxide ( Thorotrast ), vinyl chloride or arsenic.

Symptoms

Angiosarcoma of the skin first appear as reddish spots that are similar to discolor later bruising bluish and finally ulcerated disintegrate. Hemangiosarcoma of the liver or spleen can lead to a swelling of the upper abdomen. Frequently stay hemangiosarcoma of the internal organs - especially in animals - but long unnoticed and are only determined after a rupture of the tumor, the patient will already be in a very critical condition.

The diagnosis is made on clinical and histological findings. The therapy is usually a radical surgery followed by radiation and / or chemotherapy.

The prognosis is usually unfavorable. The five- year survival rate depends on the degree of differentiation: grade 1 ( very similar to normal tissue ) means 80 % tumor- free survival at 5 years, grade 3 ( little resemblance to normal tissue ) 10%. G3 sarcomas grow very rapidly and metastasize early.

64887
de