Abstract
Postmastectomy lymphangiosarcoma is a very rare tumor with poor prognosis, occurring in the upper extremity on the affected side with lympedema at 10-odd years after standard radical mastectomy for breast cancer.
The case was a 73-year-old woman. She underwent standard radical mastectomy for left breast cancer in October 1967, followed by postoperative irradiation therapy. Edema developed in the left upper extremity about 10 years ago, and multiple scarlet phymas appeared in the left upper extremity in about December 2000. She visited the dermatological department of our hospital in January 2001, but she was referred to the surgical department because of suspected metastatic skin tumor. Based on the findings of tissue biopsy performed on the same day, she was diagnosed as having postmastectomy lymphangiosarcoma. Her left shoulder girdle was amputated under general anesthesia at about 5 weeks after the initial examination.
This disease is often misdiagnosed as an inflammatory disease because of its extremely low incidence, resulting in a delay in starting the treatment, although early detection and early treatment are crucial for better prognosis. In fact, the mean survival duration after diagnosis is as short as 11-18 months, demonstrating its poor prognosis. We report a case of this very rare disease, postmastectomy lymphangiosarcoma.
