Rapports de cas cliniques et médicaux

Cardiac Angiosarcoma after Chemo−Radiotherapy for Non−Hodgkin′s Lymphoma: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Abstract

M. Troiano*, E. E. Piazzolla, S. Cossa, A. Raguso, I. Troiano, P. Corsa, T. Munafò, F.P. Ricci, A. Parisi, F. Colangelo and S. Parisi

Sarcomas in irradiated tissues are often considered second cancers and, among these, Angiosarcoma (AS) is an aggressive, malignant endothelialcell tumour of vascular or lymphatic origin. AS can arise in any site of the body, but it very rarely occurs in major blood vessels or in the heart.

We report the case of 51-year old woman who developed a cardiac AS 20 year after chemoradiation therapy for bulky non-Hodgkin’s disease.

She was healthy until December 2013 when, because of persistent dyspnea, the family physician prescribed an echocardiographic exam that evidenced an intracavitary left atrial mass that caused functional severe mitral stenosis. After complete surgical excision, the mass was confirmed to be high grade AS. No residual tumor was detected by a post-operative cardiac magnetic resonance (MRI) and a positron emission tomography (PET) scan didn’t show images of neoplastic masses in other sites.

The patient was treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. She died 27 months after diagnosis.