Abstract
A variety of vascular proliferations, both benign and malignant, can occur in the breast. Overall, they represent only a minority of tumours originating in the breast. Benign vascular lesions other than incidental perilobular haemangiomas are extremely rare in the breast. Malignant vascular lesions (angiosarcomas) are also rare, constituting less than 1 % of all breast neoplasms; they may be primary, or they may be secondary tumours occurring after radiation treatment. Also seen in association with radiation therapy are “atypical vascular lesions” affecting the skin of the breast. The relationship between atypical vascular lesions and radiation-associated angiosarcoma is controversial and remains to be elucidated. This chapter reviews the most common vascular lesions in the breast, with an emphasis on their diagnostic features and potential interpretive pitfalls.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Guo T, Zhang L, Chang NE, Singer S, Maki RG, Antonescu CR. Consistent MYC and FLT4 gene amplification in radiation-induced angiosarcoma but not in other radiation-associated atypical vascular lesions. Genes Chromosomes Cancer. 2011;50:25–33.
Fletcher CDM, McGrogan G, Fox SB. Angiosarcoma. In: Lakhani SR, Ellis IO, Schnitt SJ, Tan PH, van de Vijver MJ, editors. WHO classification of tumours of the breast. Lyon: IARC Press; 2012. p. 135–46.
Liberman L, Dershaw DD, Kaufman RJ, Rosen PP. Angiosarcoma of the breast. Radiology. 1992;183:649–54.
Goh LW, Wong SL, Tan PH. Four cases of echogenic breast lesions: a case series and review. Singapore Med J. 2016;57:339–43.
Yang WT, Hennessy BT, Dryden MJ, Valero V, Hunt KK, Krishnamurthy S. Mammary angiosarcomas: imaging findings in 24 patients. Radiology. 2007;242:725–34.
Fraga-Guedes C, André S, Mastropasqua MG, Botteri E, Toesca A, Rocha RM, et al. Angiosarcoma and atypical vascular lesions of the breast: diagnostic and prognostic role of MYC gene amplification and protein expression. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2015;151:131–40.
Patel RM, Goldblum JR, Hsi ED. Immunohistochemical detection of human herpes virus-8 latent nuclear antigen-1 is useful in the diagnosis of Kaposi sarcoma. Mod Pathol. 2004;17:456–60.
Pantanowitz L, Dezube BJ. Kaposi sarcoma in unusual locations. BMC Cancer. 2008;8:190.
Rao P, Lahat G, Arnold C, Gavino AC, Lahat S, Hornick JL, et al. Angiosarcoma: a tissue microarray study with diagnostic implications. Am J Dermatopathol. 2013;35:432–7.
Kallen ME, Nunes Rosado FG, Gonzalez AL, Sanders ME, Cates JM. Occasional staining for p63 in malignant vascular tumors: a potential diagnostic pitfall. Pathol Oncol Res. 2012;18:97–100.
Nascimento AF, Raut CP, Fletcher CD. Primary angiosarcoma of the breast: clinicopathologic analysis of 49 cases, suggesting that grade is not prognostic. Am J Surg Pathol. 2008;32:1896–904.
Ghareeb ER, Bhargava R, Vargo JA, Florea AV, Beriwal S. Primary and radiation-induced breast angiosarcoma: clinicopathologic predictors of outcomes and the impact of adjuvant radiation therapy. Am J Clin Oncol. 2016;39:463–7.
Pandey M, Sutton GR, Giri S, Martin MG. Grade and prognosis in localized primary angiosarcoma. Clin Breast Cancer. 2015;15:266–9.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tan, P.H., Sahin, A.A. (2017). Vascular Lesions. In: Atlas of Differential Diagnosis in Breast Pathology. Atlas of Anatomic Pathology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6697-4_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6697-4_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6695-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6697-4
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)