Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2017:2017:4056459.
doi: 10.1155/2017/4056459. Epub 2017 Feb 9.

Stewart-Treves Syndrome Involving Chronic Lymphedema after Mastectomy of Breast Cancer

Smain Nabil Mesli  1 , Amin Khayreddine Ghouali  1 , Fouad Benamara  1 , Fouzi Ahmed Taleb  1 , Hicham Tahraoui  1 , Chakib Abi-Ayad  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Stewart-Treves Syndrome Involving Chronic Lymphedema after Mastectomy of Breast Cancer

Smain Nabil Mesli et al. Case Rep Surg. 2017.

Abstract

Steward-Treves syndrome is a cutaneous angiosarcoma that usually appears after long evolution of a lymphoedema after mastectomy for mammary neoplasia associated with an axillary dissection. This is a rare disease develop most of the time in upper arm and often confounded with cutaneous metastasis. Only the biopsy and immunohistochemical study confirm the diagnosis. The treatment is surgical and consists of large cutaneous excision, an amputation of the limb or even its disarticulation and will be followed by chemotherapy. Despite the treatment, the prognosis remains severe with poor survival. We report the case of a patient who had a Steward-Treves syndrome 20 years after lymphoedema following a left mastectomy with axillary dissection.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no competing interests regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Left arm: mauve color with transitional tracer.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Appearance of the indurated nodule at the posterior surface of the upper limb of the left arm.
Figure 3
Figure 3
CT scan of left arm: fluidic collection with heterogeneous rearrangement of the fatty tissue with septa thickened and presence of muscular necrosis.
Figure 4
Figure 4
MRI of the soft parts of the upper left limb objectivating edematous infiltration of the fatty tissue with the presence of nodular formation opposite the brachial artery.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Stewart F. W., Treves N. Lymphangiosarcoma in postmastectomy lymphedema. A report of six cases in elephantiasis chirurgica. Cancer. 1948;1(1):64–81. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(194805)1:1<64::aid-cncr2820010105>3.0.co;2-w. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cozen W., Bernstein L., Wang F., Press M. F., Mack T. M. The risk of angiosarcoma following primary breast cancer. British Journal of Cancer. 1999;81(3):532–536. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6690726. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Weiss S. W., Goldblum J. R. Malignant Vascular Tumors: Enzinger et Weiss. Mosby Elsevier; 2008.
    1. Wendt T., Kietzmann H., Schubert C., Kaiserling E. Progressive lymphangiokeratoma and angiosarcoma (Stewart-Treves syndrome) in congenital lymphedema. Der Hautarzt; Zeitschrift fur Dermatologie, Venerologie, und Verwandte Gebiete. 1988;39(3):155–160. - PubMed
    1. Fitzpatrick P. J. Lymphangiosarcoma and breast cancer. Canadian Journal of Surgery. 1969;12(2):172–177. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources