Angiosarcoma of the Skull Presenting as Growing Mass

Abstract

We report a patient having an angiosarcoma of the skull, and Factor VIII related antigen was demonstrable in the tumor. The patient was a 62-year-old male who complained of a growing mass of the skull with pain. The plain skull film revealed the multiple osteolytic lesions. The tumor was filled with hematoma, and showed the typical histologic features as angiosarcoma, and Factor VIII related antigen staining was positive. Bone scintigraphy with Tc-99m-MDP showed hot areas in the left frontal, parietal and occipital skull. Also, there were moderately or markedly hot areas in the left maxilla, left mandible, sternal angle, left 4th rib, and the 3rd to 7th cervical, the 11th thoracic and the 5th lumbar vertebra. He was treated by excision of the left frontal and parietooccipital tumors, followed by irradiation therapy and anticancer chemotherapy. In addition, the adoptive immunotherapy by recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2, CELEUK^<(R)> , TAKEDA Pharma. Co.) was performed. After the IL-2 therapy, the biological activities of lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells and natural killer (NK) cells in serum increased, but the tumors were not reduced. Although the adoptive immunotherapy of IL-2 for angiosarcoma was not so effective in our case, immunotherapy seems to require combined chemotherapy or radiation after excision.