Treatment Options for Multinucleate Cell Angiohistiocytoma: A Case Series and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Background: Multinucleate cell angiohistiocytoma (MCAH) is an unusual fibrohistiocytic proliferation in the dermis with vascular hyperplasia. Numerous clinicopathological studies of MCAH have been published, but little has been written in relation to treatment.

Objectives: The aim of the present study is to review the therapeutical approaches for MCAH in the literature and to report the results of the different therapies followed at our institution.

Methods: A literature review was conducted including all MCAH published cases that followed any therapy. Search terms included "multinucleate cell angiohistiocytoma" or "MCAH" and "treatment" or "therapy". Also, all cases of MCAH treated at our institution from 2010 to 2020 are reported.

Results: The literature search revealed 16 cases of MCAH treated with any of the therapeutic options. At our institution, 9 patients have been treated of MCAH between 2010 and 2020. Over 75% of them were female, and the median age was 56 years (range 47-73). More than 50% had lesions on the dorsum of the hands. Surgical excision was indicated in 2 patients, ablative CO2 laser was used in 1 patient and the 6 remaining ones followed vascular-targeted therapies (PDL and IPL). A satisfactory cosmetic result was achieved in all of them.

Conclusions: We propose PDL therapy as a first-line treatment for MCAH since it achieves satisfactory esthetic results, while being well-tolerated. Selecting those amenable patients according to morphologic characteristics may be useful to avoid unsuccessful therapies. In MCAH with predominant fibrous stroma, surgery or CO2 laser may be the best option.

Keywords: carbon dioxide laser (CO2 laser); intense pulsed light (IPL); multinucleate cell angiohistiocytoma (MCAH); pulsed dye laser (PDL); therapy.