Prostate angiosarcoma: Is there any association with previous radiation therapy? - Abstract

Angiosarcomas are histological subtype of sarcomas and rarely involve the prostate gland.

Only ten cases of prostate angiosarcoma have been reported in the literature to date. Occurrence of post-irradiation prostate angiosarcoma is rare considering the frequency of radiotherapy used for treatment of prostate adenocarcinoma. We provide a brief review of all cases of prostate angiosarcoma and describe the epidemiology, etiology, clinical presentation, histopathology, prognostic factors and current treatment options for prostate angiosarcoma. For the current review a literature search was carried out using Pubmed, EmBase, and Cochrane databases. All cases of prostate angioscaroma reported to date and observational studies evaluating the radiation associated cancer occurrence were reviewed. Despite the rarity, prostate angiosarcomas display remarkable clinical and pathological heterogeneity, and a treatment challenge. We found the association of prostate angiosarcoma with radiation therapy to be weak based upon the results from observational studies and case reports. Although radiation exposure has been suggested etiology of prostate angiosarcomas, assumption of such association is not supported by the current literature.

Written by:
Khaliq W, Meyer CF, Uzoaru I, Wolf RM, Antonarakis ES. Are you the author?
Departments of Medicine Medical Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD; Departments of Pathology Urology, Carle Foundation Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA.

Reference: BJU Int. 2012 May 15. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2012.11202.x

PubMed Abstract
PMID: 22583810

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